Alternate Identity: A Polyjuice Potion Story
by Ginger Granger
Summary: Hilarity, awkwardness and confusion ensues when a Polyjuice Potion project gets embarassingly out of hand and 4 title Gryffindors have to struggle through it. CH. 7- A Hogsmeade trip is planned.. What will be encountered there?
1. A Fatal Mistake

A/N: I cut down this first chapter a lot. For those who are first reading this now, and for those who aren't somehow, thank you very much for being interested enough in the summary to decide to read it. It gets a little confusing, so please stay alert.  
  
Jessica: Thank you so much for being so interested in the story! If it weren't for you, I would probably have quit.  
Disclaimer: No own. If I did I would have piles of cash.  
Read on!  
  
*****_  
  
Alternate Identity: A Polyjuice Potion Story_  
Chapter One: A Fatal Mistake  
  
This was is. They were going to do it. The four goblets sat in front of them on the cracked and crumbling counter in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. They glanced at eachother uneasily.  
  
It was all part of a project. This assignment allowed them to switch bodies for one month with someone they trusted and was of the same sex. They would have to wear a nametag at all times displaying who you really are.  
  
The four Gryffindors, namely Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron and Ginny Weasley, had to take Polyjuice Potion with the rest of the school's fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh years as a project. Harry was planning to turn into Ron, Hermione was planning to turn into Ginny, and vice versa. It would be that way for a month.  
  
A month.  
  
What the project accomplished, no one really knew. Most said it was Dumbledore's idea, but it would help them in so many classes; in Potions for making the potion, in Herbology for learning about its ingredients, and even in Care of Magical Creatures for learning about animals that took part in the potion, like a Boomslang.  
  
Each of them hovered over the counter, the hairs they'd need for the potion for a month were duplicated so they wouldn't have to keep getting new ones.  
  
They weren't really supposed to be in Myrtle's bathroom, but the dorms were full.  
  
"All right," Hermione said, glancing at her muddy-looking goblet. "Let's do it, then."  
  
They heard a gurgling from a nearby stall, and Myrtle appeared. "Are you gone yet?" she whined, the obvious answer staring right through her.  
  
"Myrtle, quiet!" Ron said. "We can't be found in here."  
  
"I don't care if you're found; there's probably someone out there patrolling the halls anyway."  
  
"Myrtle, no!" Ron said.  
  
"Myrtle, no!" Myrtle's voice mimicked him. "It's always _you_ and _your _little friends ruining everything for me! Why, it's just as if I were alive again!"  
  
"Myrtle, SHUT UP!" Ron shouted. Myrtle obviously hadn't gotten her point across..  
  
"Who's that?" a voice came from outside the door, knocking on it.  
  
"Hide!" Hermione whispered. "We'll be in big trouble if we get found here." They each took a goblet and hid in separate stalls.  
  
"Harry," Myrtle's annoying falsetto voice said as her ghost rose out of the toilet in the stall Harry hid in. "It's been nearly a year. Haven't seen you since you snuck into that prefect's bathroom.."  
  
"You snuck in too," Harry said, his face reddening; all he needed now was to be reminded of Myrtle spying on him taking a bath. "Look, distract whoever's going to come inspect the bathroom, all right?"  
  
Myrtle gave him an admiring smirk before gliding out of the stall.  
  
Harry could hear the door to the decrepit bathroom opening. "Anyone in here?" the person coming into the bathroom asked Myrtle. It was the voice of a student, probably a Prefect.  
  
"No," Myrtle replied. "Peeves just stopped by, and you know him."  
  
"Are you sure?" the nosy Prefect asked. "I could have sworn I heard the voices of students as well."  
  
"Why would students want to come here? To see ugly, loud, complaining _me_?" Myrtle asked stubbornly, her transparent arms folded.  
  
"Mind if I check around?" and everyone in the bathroom heard an audible whip; the trademark sound of a wand quickly being drawn from a pocket.  
  
"Get OUT of my bathroom!" Myrtle screamed, beginning to cry. "Or I'll flood it! Leave me alone!"  
  
The Prefect gave up and left, the door creaking closed.  
  
There were a few seconds of silence before the four emerged from the stalls.  
  
"Thanks, Myrtle," Ron said amazedly. "What persuaded you to do _that_?"  
  
"Harry," she said, before disappearing down another toilet.  
  
"Okay," Ron said. "She's odd, that one.."  
  
"All right," Hermione said. "How about we drink our potion in separate stalls and get it over with?"  
  
"Good idea," Ron replied. "The transformation probably won't be a sight we want to see." And they went into separate stalls.  
  
Ginny, not having ever taken the potion before, let out a nervous groan.  
  
"It's OK, Ginny," Harry's voice echoed through the bathroom. "Can't be worse than what happened to Hermione.."  
  
"Quiet, Harry," Hermione said sternly, holding her own murky, swampy potion. "On the count of three. One.. two.. three."  
  
The four took down a few sips of potion and felt an immediate change. Their skin did bubble, but it was not as painful as any of them expected. Their new images formed. However, something didn't feel quite right.. There was a moment's pause as each of them looked down at themselves and realized..  
  
Hermione's voice was first to scream, followed by the other's panicked voices as each of them burst out of their stalls, trying to figure out who was who, each speaking at the same time. (A/N: Very important: They did not keep their normal voices in a new body as they did in the movie. So Ron's voice belongs to the body of Ron, Hermione's voice belongs to Hermione's body, etc.)  
  
"QUIET!" Ron's voice bellowed, his tall form standing above the rest. "Something has gone wrong. We must have taken the incorrect potions. I'm Hermione. Who are you?" She controlled Ron's hand to point to Hermione's body.  
  
"I'm-- I'm Ron," Hermione's voice said, the thumb reflexively pointing towards the chest. Confused, prodding something unknown to a male mind, the thumb was quickly yanked away.  
  
"I'm doomed," Ron's anguished voice decided, controlled by Hermione.  
  
"Did you two switch too?" Hermione's voice asked, controlled by Ron.  
  
"Yes," Ginny's voice said, lifting a hand and examining it, then made it pull off the no longer needed glasses, blinking curious brown eyes and handing the glasses to Harry's body. "We.. we must have taken the wrong potions when we went to hide from that Prefect.."  
  
Harry's hand took the glasses and put them on his face, vision now clear. "Right. So, I'm Ginny.." She controlled Harry's hand to point to Ginny's body. "That's Harry, Ron's body has Hermione in it, and Ron's mind is in Hermione's body."  
  
"Right," Ron's voice said. "So. I'm Hermione, but I look like Ron. And.. since Harry was supposed to be Ron's partner, I have to act like Harry and go to his classes."  
  
"Hang on then," Hermione's voice said, her brow furrowed. "I'm Ron.. And I look like Hermione, but she.." He controlled her to run a hand through her hair, as Ron used to do when he was perplexed. His fingers nearly got lost in the hair. "Wait, who am I again?"  
  
"You're supposed to be me," Harry's voice said.  
  
"And you are?"  
  
"I'm _Ginny_, Ron, your little sister! I was supposed to switch with Hermione, so you have to act like me. I'm a year before you, so you'll have to go to my classes. I'll give you my schedule and books and all. I look like Harry and have to act like you, Ron, since you had to switch with Harry."  
  
"Right," Ginny's voice said. "Right then, I'm Harry.. look like Ginny.. so that means I have to go to Hermione's classes and be like her."  
  
"Hang on a second.. Can't we just take the correct potions now?" Hermione's voice asked.  
  
"No," Ron's voice replied. "Snape said that the potions were altered so we could not take another Polyjuice Potion containing a different hair, remember?"  
  
"Wait! We can still fix this. We can tell Snape.. or better yet, Dumbledore.. then retake the potions!" Harry's voice realized.  
  
"What? Oh, no. We're not going to do that. Can you imagine how low our grade can drop?" Ron's worried voice asked, controlled by Hermione.  
  
"What? D'you mean to say that you'd rather face the awkwardness of being trapped in my body?" Hermione's voice, controlled by Ron, asked. "And that you want to go to Harry's classes, and sleep in the boys' dorm, and not reveal yourself for an entire month, than just going to a teacher and explaining the error?"  
  
"We'll get house points taken off too! We went in the out-of-order bathroom!" Ron's voice argued back.  
  
"That was your idea in the first place!" Hermione's voice spat out.  
  
"Well I'm not going to tell a teacher. And if I can't, I'm sorry, but if one of you tell, we all get discovered."  
  
"So we have to do this? For a month?" a still-disbelieving Harry's voice, controlled by Ginny, asked.  
  
"We'll put memory charms on eachother after the month is over," Ginny's voice piped up. "What about during the night when the potion wears off?"  
  
Ron's shoulders shrugged. "Hope you like sleeping fully under the covers so no one else in the dorm sees your true form." Ron's voice gasped. "What about grades? If I work hard, it won't be for me, it'll be for Ron."  
  
"Say, now that's not a bad idea," Hermione's voice decided, controlled by Ron, her lips cracking a smile. "My grades could actually use a boost, thanks Hermione!"  
  
"That's the least of our worries," Harry's voice said, waving a hand. "What about privacy?" Ginny was quite worried about that.  
  
"We're all worried about that," Ron's voice said. "It will be very, very awkward.. but in one month, it will all be forgotten. We just have to focus on who was supposed to turn into who we look like now. Go to their classes, try to act like them, and answer to their name."  
  
A gurgling from a nearby toilet was heard and Myrtle glided through the door to face them all. "You still here? What the--" she immediately burst out laughing.  
  
"What?" an angry Hermione's voice asked.  
  
"Your-- your robes," Myrtle choked out through her laughter.  
  
They'd been so busy talking about how to solve their problems that they hadn't realized that they had to switch robes. Therefore, Hermione and Ginny's bodies wore boys' uniforms while Ron and Harry were both wearing girls' uniforms, skirts and all.  
  
"Back into the stalls," Ron's voice decided, and that is what they did, throwing clothes over the walls separating stalls and changing.  
  
The awkwardness began with a bumpy start. All four of them found that getting dressed in garments they'd never worn before while trying not to look at their newly acquired bodies out of respect for the person who owned it was quite difficult.  
  
"I hate this," Hermione's voice grunted from a stall, apparently having problems dressing. "How do girls get this stupid thing on every day?"  
  
"Ron, you'd better have your eyes shut!" Ron's voice wailed from another stall.  
  
"What, you don't trust me? I'm not some kind of pervert," Hermione's voice responded.  
  
"Stop bickering, both of you!" Harry's voice came.  
  
Each of them stepped out of their stall when they were finished.  
  
"We're supposed to go to our normal classes," Ron's voice pointed out. "But since I'm supposed to be Harry, not Hermione, I have to go to all of Harry's classes. So just get the schedule from the person you're pretending to be.. not the person you look like, or the person you are."  
  
Hermione's voice made a frustrated sigh. "This is going to be so hard.."  
  
"Well, it's just past curfew," Harry's voice realized. "We'd better get back, and now."  
  
Myrtle watched them with amusement as they got used to their new bodies and stumbled out the door.   
  
*****  
  
End of this chapter! You will review now? Much appreciated!   



	2. Quidditch Disaster

A/N: Yay! I got a reviewer! ::does happy reviewer dance, feeling special. Thank you for review! Much, much appreciated. Keep reading, and I'll keep writing!  
  
*****  
  
_Alternate Identity: A Polyjuice Potion Story_  
Chapter Two: Quidditch Disaster  
  
Luckily for these four, Harry had his Invisibility Cloak in the pocket of his robes. Since Ginny was in Harry's body and clothes, she retrieved it and they struggled to all fit underneath it. They removed it when they approached the Fat Lady.  
  
"Dragon toes," Harry's voice whispered. They entered.  
  
Ron, who was a little too tired of the body switching and whatnot, dragged Hermione's body up into the boys' dorm, where he was so accustomed to going. There were confused looks from the boys there (who had all switched beds, by the way, since most of them got a partner for the potion in their own dorm) when they saw Hermione's body standing in the doorway, who immediately closed the door when Ron realized where he was not supposed to be.  
  
"Great job, Ron," Ron's body, controlled by Hermione, told Hermione's body, controlled by Ron, when it came back down the stairs from the boy's dorms. "Now everyone's going to think I came into the boys' dorm."  
  
"No, they'll find out that you were supposed to have switched with Ginny, so they'll think that _she_ came into the boys' dorm, just in Hermione's body," Hermione's voice replied.  
  
"Actually, won't everyone be teasing Harry about going into the boys' dorm since he's in my body?" Ginny said inside Harry's body.  
  
"No, because Ginny's supposed to take the potion and look like Hermione," Ron's voice explained.  
  
"Shut up, we've got more important things to worry about," Hermione's voice said.  
  
"Whatever," Ron's voice said. "We," a lanky arm indicated towards Harry's body and Ron's own, "have to go to the boys' dorms. You two go to the girls' dorms. When you fall asleep, be under the covers completely and maybe try to wake up first."  
  
"How're we going to plan waking up first?" Ginny's small voice asked Hermione. Or Hermione's body, anyway, with Ron controlling it.  
  
"No idea," Hermione's voice answered.  
  
They, without having much else to do, bade eachother good night.  
  
*****  
  
Ron and Harry's bodies made it uneasily up the unfamiliar steps to the boys' dorms. Upon opening the door, they noticed the severe lack of organization in the room, which mostly affected Hermione.  
  
"What are you two doing still up?" came the voice of Seamus from Dean's bed.  
  
"Er, we had detention," Hermione's mind was quick to decide, explaining it from Ron's body.  
  
"Who switched places with Hermione? Whoever it is, she just stepped in here for some reason."  
  
"Er, probably looking for us. We were.. supposed to study," Harry's voice said. Harry's body turned to Ron's. "I'm going to wash up.. Harry," Harry's voice said. Ginny caught herself just in time.  
  
Ginny, Harry's body, stepped into the boys' bathroom and did a double take in the mirror. She examined his eyes, fascinated. They were the first things that caught her attention. They were startlingly bright. After a closer examination as she checked for perhaps colored contact lenses, the kind Muggles used to change the color of their eyes but not correct the vision. She found none. Just bright green eyes. As green as.. As green as a fresh pickled toad, if not greener.  
  
She backed away from the mirror, feeling stupid, but telling herself that no one was watching. She'd always had been so nervous around Harry, but now that she was actually inside the body of the person who made her face turn that particular shade of pink, nervousness was not really an option.  
  
She controlled the body to lean towards the mirror again and she examined his scar under the softly tousled jet black bangs, slowly tracing the path of the crooked line with one finger. She prodded the prominent nose, unlike the one she was used to, which was more upturned and freckly.  
  
She noted the absence of freckles and presence of hands larger than she was accustomed to with bony knuckles and stubby fingernails; Ginny also felt taller. She searched a disorganized cabinet and found a toothbrush with Harry's name on it, and proceeded to brush his teeth, wash his face, and let Hermione into the bathroom.  
  
Hermione walked in. Lowering her new thicker red eyebrows, she poked the pointy nose. She found herself at least five inches taller than she was used to being, and noted the long arms and legs. Hermione was used to bushy brown hair, and found that Ron's hair was much shorter and straighter, easier to manage.  
  
She rummaged around for a toothbrush marked "Ron", and, praying this one thing was _not_ passed down from his brothers, brushed his teeth and washed up. She took Ron's body back to the dorm. After another change of clothes in which the two girls trapped in boys' bodies avoided looking downward, they went to bed.  
  
*****  
  
In the girls' dorms, something similar was happening; the same uneasy feeling taking over them as they went in a different path than the one they had been so used to. As soon as they opened the door, Crookshanks leaped forth and began rubbing against Hermione's leg, begging to be petted.  
  
"Oh, go away," Hermione's voice said, moving her leg away, shooing Crookshanks. Offended, Crookshanks did as he was told.  
  
They were asked where they had been and Ginny's voice answered that they were helping a professor. Satisfied with their response, the other girls resumed sleeping.  
  
"I'm going to wash up," Hermione's voice said, yawning. Her body shuffled into the clean bathroom and adapted to not being as tall as Ron was. So this is what it was like, being a girl. He hadn't yet gotten used to it.  
  
It required a new sort of balance for some reasons he couldn't quite put his finger on. He turned, and newly acquired anatomy subtly swung with him. Ah, that was the balance he couldn't quite put his finger on. And, out of respect for Hermione, he remained without putting a finger on it.  
  
Feeling rather uneasy now, he opened a cabinet and found a brush labeled "Hermione" (among many other girly things he dare not touch) and attempted to get a few strokes through her hair. It was difficult. Unsuccessful, he returned the brush with hairs clinging to it to the cabinet and brushed her teeth.  
  
While washing her face, he noted that it is difficult for girls to keep their hair back while doing things that required water. He returned to the dorm, parts of bushy hair wet.  
  
"Go ahead.. Ginny," he said, catching himself. Or is it herself?  
  
Ginny's body stepped into the bathroom, catching itself in the mirror. Examining with large brown eyes, Harry controlled her to lift a small section of straight red hair. It was soft and tidy, unlike the messy hair Harry was used to. He shifted the small body, getting used to his own subtle new balance.  
  
He controlled the body, a bit shorter than the one he was used to, to lean towards the mirror. He tapped the skin below the hairline, which became a lingering touch, then a gentle stroke across the forehead. No scar. Just soft skin dotted with freckles.  
  
He opened a cabinet, searching for Ginny's toothbrush, and he brushed her teeth when he found it and washed her freckled face. He came out of the bathroom. Hermione's body was already wearing her bedclothes, and Harry did his best to change with his eyes firmly shut. It had been about half an hour since his first dosage of potion, so he didn't have to worry about taking more.. the other girls will probably have fallen asleep by then.  
  
Hermione and Ginny's bodies climbed into their beds, bidding eachother good night after a whisper to eachother about taking potion first thing in the morning.  
  
*****  
  
The next morning, Hermione was first awake in the boys' dorm, in her own body after a not-so-restful night mostly in the body of Ron. Quickly, she reached down to the side of her bed to where her flask of potion was kept and drank from it, ducking under the covers as the potion went to work, changing her back into Ron's body. She woke up Ginny, who had to take her potion as well.  
  
"Wonder how Ron and Harry are doing," Ron's voice said worriedly.  
  
"They're probably fine," Harry's voice answered as he put glasses over his green eyes, blinking. "And if someone were to see their true forms, they'd know to use a Memory Charm on the entire dorm."  
  
Breakfast was havoc. Everyone was sitting where they normally went, but they were all in separate bodies. Interhouse partnerships were most confusing. Instead of four tidy sections each with their own colors, many people had switched with someone in a different house. Everyone was wearing a nametag that displayed the person they really were inside the body. Ginny's schedule was given to Hermione's body since she was in a separate year.  
  
Harry's body had Ginny's mind inside it, but a nametag that displayed "Ronald Weasley". Ron's body had Hermione's mind inside it, and a nametag that stated "Harry Potter". Hermione's body had Ron's mind inside it, and a nametag that read "Virginia Weasley". Ginny's body had the mind of Harry inside it, along with a nametag that proclaimed "Hermione Granger". (A/N: Just in case people may be confused..)  
  
"This is terrible. How could you want to stay like this?" Hermione's frantic voice asked Ron's body, with Hermione's mind in it, still against telling a teacher their mistake.  
  
"It will be over soon," was all Ron could say. "Besides, it's too late to say anything. We'll be interrogated on why we didn't say anything earlier."  
  
"And that's because _you_ didn't want to!" Hermione's voice exclaimed.  
  
"You're not the only one beginning to regret it," Ron's voice said, his face expression disgusted. "I'm so tall now I had to kneel just to see into the mirror in the bathroom."  
  
"Yeah, well I'm so short I had to stand on the counter!" Hermione's voice retorted, her mouth curling into a frown.  
  
"Stop arguing!" Harry's voice cut in quietly so they would not draw attention. "We don't have a choice of whether we want to tell or not now. Get used to it. Do you see Harry and I arguing?"  
  
"We're doomed," Hermione's voice came, her bushy head in her hands. Her hand was pulled out of her hair to avoid tangling. "And yes, I _tried _to brush this wild hair this morning.."  
  
This peeved Hermione in Ron's body quite a bit. "Well, I nearly _stabbed_ someone with this nose.."  
  
"You have to stop!" Ginny's voice said quietly. "Stop acting immature. No one needs to know that we messed up this assignment. Just lie low."  
  
*****  
  
Classes went all right. Ron, in Hermione's body, had to go to Ginny's classes. Nothing he hadn't seen before. Of course, he tuned out the lectures just as he had the year before. None of them normally spoke up in class anyway except for Hermione, and today Hermione in Ron's body was not up to doing much. As long as they didn't draw attention to themselves, they could get through it.  
  
Right?  
  
Three rough days later paid off as Saturday, March fifth arrived. Ah, a weekend. So convenient. No classes, just free time, but students were still required to take their potion and wear a nametag. Ginny, Harry, Hermione, and Ron were outside sitting under a tree. It was still chilly out, but there was no snow. They tried to keep things between them as least awkward as possible.  
  
"What if we just stopped taking the potion?" Harry's voice asked. "Then we wouldn't have to face all the awkwardness because we'd be back to normal, but we'd just have to pretend to be the other person."  
  
"Brilliant!" Ginny's voice said. "There's a big load off our shoulders."  
  
"No, it isn't," Ron's voice came, correcting them. "Padma Patil and her partner tried that yesterday, didn't you hear? Now teachers are conducting tests, you know, performing a charm that lets them know whether or not potion is active inside you."  
  
"That has to violate some sort of right we have," Hermione's voice grumbled.  
  
"They either perform the charm or they just have you take a sip from your flask, which they make sure that you carry around all the time," Ron's voice finished.  
  
"So we're still stuck like this," Hermione's voice declared to the body of Ginny.  
  
"Mmyep," Ginny's voice answered boredly.  
  
"Damn," Hermione's voice said matter-of-factly.  
  
"Exactly!" Ginny's voice replied.  
  
There were a few seconds of gloomy silence.  
  
"There you are Harry! Been looking for you," a grinning Fred, who had just run over to them with his broomstick, said, facing Ron. "Care to try out your Seeker abilities in the body of our very own Ronniekins?"  
  
Ron's eyes widened; Hermione's mind inside it was frantic. She would have to control Ron's body on a broomstick while pretending to be Harry, the star Quidditch player of the school. Wonderful.  
  
"Shut up, Fred," the voice of Harry said. Ginny was quick to assume her position of Ron.  
  
Fred's face grew serious and his free hand flew to his chest dramatically. "Why Ronald," he said. "I'm appalled. You can't tell your twin brothers apart?"  
  
"No way," Harry's voice said, grinning. "They let you two switch?"  
  
Fred grinned and pointed to his nametag, which stated 'George Weasley'. "Can't you read?" He turned back to Ron's body. "Come on Harry, the whole team's over there."  
  
Hermione had never played Quidditch in her life. "Oh.. sorry, George, I haven't been feeling well.. You know, the potion and all.."  
  
"Oh, come on," he said. "Just for a few minutes. How bad can it be?"  
  
"Yeah, Harry," Hermione's voice said, Ron's mind inside it controlling her mouth forming a slight smirk. He was still angry at Hermione in his body about not letting them tell. "Go."  
  
"Yeah, get your broom. Let's do it," George said.  
  
"Look, he doesn't have to," Harry's voice began. Ginny was beginning to get nervous over this.  
  
"No," Ron's voice said. "No, I will." Ron's eyes lowered into a glare directing straight towards Hermione's body, who was aching to see Hermione in Ron's body try to imitate Harry's flying. Ron's hand reached into his robes for the wand. "_Accio Firebolt!_"  
  
A moment later, Harry's Firebolt zoomed out of a window and right into Ron's hand. He and George began walking towards the pitch, the other three heading to the stands.  
  
*****  
  
"I am dying to see this," Hermione's voice came after they'd climbed up the stairs to the stands, sitting on one side of the body of Harry.  
  
"Why are you acting towards Hermione like that? I mean, I know you're angry at her, but this could trigger something bad," Ginny's voice piped up, sitting on the other side of Harry's body.  
  
"She's the one who won't let us out of this! I mean, this next month is going to be hell. I know we're friends and stuff, but between the awkwardness of the other sex's body and pretending to be someone you're not.. it's just too much!" Hermione's voice exclaimed, her tone oozing with Ron-ness. "So if she wants to stay this way, she should at least know what she got us into. She will know that she made the wrong choice five minutes into this practice." Hermione's arms folded.  
  
"She could get hurt," Harry's voice said worriedly. Ginny didn't want that. "What if she's knocked unconscious? That alone is bad enough, but then she can't take her potion, and she'll change back, and we'll be discovered soon enough if there's one Hermione in the Hospital Wing registered as Harry and another Hermione is roaming around school.."  
  
"We'll figure out something, if, and I say _if_ that should happen," Hermione's voice responded, though sounding a bit worried.  
  
"Look, they're starting!" Ginny's voice said.  
  
Indeed they were. Everyone, including Seamus (well, the body of him, anyway), who was the new Keeper, was up in the air. Everyone except for George and Hermione's mind in the body of Ron.  
  
"I'm nervous," Ron's voice said worriedly. "I mean.. I'm used to being much shorter, and erm.. aerodynamic?"  
  
"Nonsense," George said. "We're all in different bodies now, and we all won't be as good as we usually are. Except for me and Fred, that is."  
  
"Right, right."  
  
"So one of us'll have a golf ball to use instead of the Snitch. You won't know who, all right? Anyway, the person who has it will throw it at a random time, you're going to try and catch it. You focus on that. Meanwhile, us Beaters will be practicing with Bludgers, and the Chasers will be busy shooting the Quaffle at the Keeper. Got it?"  
  
Ron's head numbly bobbed up and down in a nervous 'yes'.  
  
"Right then. Mount your broom, and we'll begin." As soon as he said that, George reflexively mounted his broom and was off like a shot.  
  
Hermione controlled Ron's body to take her time swinging one leg over the broom. She kicked off, wobbly, slowly getting used to controlling the broom, her two hands clamped tightly around the handle, while glancing around at the other players to perhaps catch them throwing the golf ball.  
  
As Hermione moved higher, she felt Ron's hands tremble as the ground got further and further away. She felt quite odd, as if Ron's skin was trembling as well. Trembling all over. Very odd indeed..  
  
"What the-- She's changing back!" Harry noticed from the stands, controlling Ginny's body to jump up.  
  
"Oh please, take the potion Hermione," Ginny prayed, making Harry's body stand as well. Harry's body turned towards Ron, who was beginning to feel guilty in Hermione's body. "This is _your_ fault!" she exclaimed. "We can't last a _week_ keeping this potion a secret!" They all rose to get out of the stands, to perhaps help Hermione if something happened to her or if the others noticed her changing back.  
  
Meanwhile in the air, Hermione gasped and realized her voice. She let one hand off the broom to get her flask off of her belt and the broom wobbled dangerously, nearly turning on its side. Hermione swooped lower, away from the rest of the group, and sped up.. Perhaps no one would notice she was turning into someone that was _not _Harry if all they could see was a blur far away from them.  
  
"What d'you reckon Harry's doing?" Fred asked George as he squinted many feet downward, watching who he thought was Harry.  
  
"Dunno," George said, peering down as well. "Probably just getting used to flying with someone else's body. Maybe Ron isn't that athletically coordinated."  
  
She slowed herself enough to get some potion in her mouth, but quickened her pace immediately afterward again as she attempted to put the flask back on Ron's belt.  
  
Meanwhile in the stands, her three friends were on their feet and making their way down to the pitch to put a Memory Charm on anyone who may have spotted her as Hermione.   
  
"I think.. she's taken some potion!" Ginny's voice panted as they ran down the stairs to the pitch.  
  
"Oh no-- looks like she's headed right for a goalpost!" Harry's voice said.  
  
Ron-- Hermione's body, that is-- remained silent. Ron felt very guilty, knowing there was a possibility she could get hurt doing this.  
  
Potion sloshed around in her mouth as she frantically tried to put the flask back, not looking ahead of herself. She choked down the potion and transformed, losing her balance and shaking the broom as she grew taller.  
  
When she finally got the flask back, she looked up in time to see herself quickly flying towards a pole holding the goal up. She tried to make a sharp left turn to avoid the post, but the broom's inertia only made her skid into the pole while her broom was facing sideways.  
  
It was a good twenty-five-foot fall to the ground, where Ron's body landed on the side, rolling onto his back as he made impact with the ground. The bodies of Harry, Hermione, and Ginny were the first to arrive there, the team landed immediately as well.  
  
"I'm so sorry, I had no idea you'd really get hurt--" Hermione's voice was first to speak.  
  
Ron's body breathed, but did not move, frozen on the ground. His eyes were shut.  
  
"He's unconscious," George observed.  
  
"No, really? You sure he's not sleeping?" Hermione's voice snapped sarcastically.  
  
George chose to ignore that.  
  
"We've got to get Harry to the Hospital Wing," Fred said, pulling out his wand and performing a charm so that Ron's body could levitate in the air as they'd lead it to Madam Pomfrey.  
  
"Why don't you three take him?" the voice of Angelina (she must have switched with Katie Bell) asked, gesturing towards the bodies of Ginny, Harry, and Hermione. "It doesn't matter whether or not everyone goes, right?"  
  
"Just get back to us later about him," Katie's voice said worriedly.  
  
And so the three set off back to the school with a floating Ron's body beside them.  
  
*****  
  
"Bet you feel pretty guilty now, don't you?" Ginny controlled Harry's voice to ask, taunting Ron in Hermione's body. Of course, that's what a little sister does.  
  
"Yes, I do, Gin, all right?" Hermione's voice shot back irritably. "We have to make sure she wakes up within the hour so that she can take her potion."  
  
When they arrived at the Hospital Wing, Madam Pomfrey started tutting, muttering how careless children are these days-- the usual things she said when a patient got injured in Quidditch. She guided the levitating body over to a bed and laid him down, pulling the curtain around the bed to examine where he had fallen.  
  
Minutes later, the curtain opened and Madam Pomfrey stepped out.  
  
"Well?" Hermione's voice asked.  
  
"Oh, are you still here? Kind of you.. Well, he must have had a pretty bad fall.. Broken tibia, did something to his shoulder and his hip too, since he fell on his side.. Well, once he wakes up, I'll perform some charms and he'll be out of here by tomorrow, or tonight, if he's lucky," she diagnosed Ron's body.  
  
"And, erm.. how long does it usually take for someone to regain consciousness?" Harry's voice asked.  
  
"It depends. A few minutes, a few hours.. doesn't matter, though. I don't think teachers will take points away from him not drinking his potion because he's out cold."  
  
The three glanced at eachother nervously.  
  
"Madam Pomfrey, these _are_ visiting hours, may we stay with Harry to see if he wakes up?" Hermione's voice asked.  
  
"Very well, Miss Weasley. But not for very long."  
  
They waited around his bed, not knowing how to wake up the passed out body of Ron. Hermione's body took a scrap of parchment out of a pocket in her robes, quickly borrowing Madam Pomfrey's quill and ink from her desk and scribbling on the parchment while Madam Pomfrey tended to another patient.  
  
"What are you writing?" the voice of Ginny asked.  
  
"Well, if worse comes to worse.."  
  
The faces of Ginny and Harry peered over Hermione's shoulder to see what was being written. Hermione's neat handwriting scripted:  
  
_You're in the Hospital Wing. Take your potion before Madam Pomfrey notices you're awake._  
  
"And we'll put this under the sheets, with the flask of potion," Hermione's voice finished up. "That way, if she wakes up in over an hour, she won't accidentally reveal herself."  
  
"Good idea," Harry's voice complimented him.  
  
They pulled the sheets over Ron's body, tucking the potion and paper away with him.  
  
"Are you taking this a bit too seriously?" Harry's voice asked the body of Hermione.  
  
"No, I'm not, I'm just taking proper precautions. With our luck, or lack thereof, we have to be careful, right?"  
  
"Right. Our luck hasn't been so great lately," Ginny's voice agreed.  
  
"Exactly. Watch, you just watch, she'll probably be out cold for days." And with that, they quietly left.  
  
And with such perfect timing, the body of Ron stirred.  
  
Just their luck, right?  
  
*****  
Another chapter gone! Review please...   
  
  



	3. Return of a Lovely Person

A/N: Well, things are coming along well. I have two more reviews! Thanks to eedoe for another review, and to L&A also. I will try to make things less confusing.. I hope you like this chapter!  
  
*****  
  
_Alternate Identity: A Polyjuice Potion Story  
_Chapter Three: Return of a Lovely Person  
  
Confused, feeling the rustle of paper underneath the sheets, Ron's body sat up, reaching for the letter. Pain exploded in his left shoulder, hip and leg, and Hermione inside of Ron's body groaned.  
  
"Oh are you up already? Good," Madam Pomfrey said. She performed a charm on him. "You are to stay until dinner, Mr. Potter," she continued. "You're lucky you weren't damaged any worse than that. Now lie back down. Rest."  
  
Hermione did as she was told, controlling Ron's long form to slink beneath the sheets, examining the paper.  
  
_You're in the Hospital Wing. Take your potion before Madam Pomfrey notices you're awake._  
  
Ron's eyes narrowed, confused, looking at a freckled hand. She was still in the correct body.. But what time was it? She searched for a clock, finding one above the door. She had only just taken her potion. She put the paper in Ron's robes. She couldn't fall asleep.. not here, at least. She'd wait it out.  
  
*****  
  
The bodies of Harry, Ginny, and Hermione spent most of the rest of the day in the Common Room, coming out to visit Hermione just before dinner, to make sure her potion had been taken.  
  
They entered the Hospital Wing to see Ron's body sitting up in a bed, and they were relieved.  
  
"How are you doing?" Hermione's body was first to speak as it rushed up to Ron's body.  
  
"I'm fine," Ron's voice said. "I'll be out of here in a few hours."  
  
"I'm.. I'm really, really sorry, Hermione," Hermione's voice came out oozing with honest guilt.  
  
Ron's mouth curled into a small smile and looked down. "It's OK.. It was just because I didn't take my potion that I crashed.." He looked up. "I was wrong. We should have went straight to Dumbledore."  
  
There was a silence. Hermione seldom admitted she was wrong.  
  
There was a click and a blinding flash of a camera and the four of them immediately saw colored spots in front of their eyes. They heard a familiar voice through the spots.  
  
"That was a lovely picture. We'll use it for the paper, darling, get it to print. I'll do the interview, right? Lovely."  
  
"Rita.. Skeeter?" Ron's voice asked, rubbing his eyes.  
  
"That's right," she said, taking a seat on Ron's bed. "I heard Hogwarts is attempting this _outrageous_ experiment with Polyjuice Potion, and I haven't caught up with my friend Harry in a while, and well, I'm going to interview you for tomorrow's Daily Prophet. You and whoever you switched with." She took out parchment and a quill using ruby red claws. She didn't wand to cross with Hermione after being captured by her in the form of a beetle.  
  
"Er.. I'm Ron Weasley," Ginny said in the body of Harry. "I switched with Harry."  
  
"Right. Lovely. So, first question. Harry," she said, gesturing towards Ron, "What is the--"  
  
"You know, I'd rather not be interviewed," Ron's voice said, Hermione controlling it.  
  
"Tell you what. I'll meet you both after dinner, all right? In your Common Room, understand?" Rita asked.  
  
"Dumbledore won't let you in," Harry's voice said.  
  
"Yes he will," Rita countered. "As long as I take accurate notes, he said."  
  
"Fine," Ron's body said. "I'll be out of here by then."  
  
"Lovely," Rita said, standing up. A small vial of clear liquid fell out of her pocket and clinked against the floor. She hurriedly scooped it up. "See you then!" And she left.  
  
"You're going to let her interview you?" Ginny's voice asked. "Are you crazy?"  
  
"If Dumbledore let her in, and allowed her to get into the Common Room, I think it'd be all right, don't you?" Ron's voice asked.  
  
*****  
  
After dinner, Hermione in Ron's body was released from the Hospital Wing, feeling a lot better. In the Common Room, as promised, was Rita Skeeter.  
  
Harry and Ron's bodies had Ginny and Hermione inside them. Since Rita did not know this, she expected to get answers from Harry and Ron. Ginny and Hermione's bodies, with Harry and Ron inside them, came to the Common Room with them but went right to bed instead of sticking around for the interview.  
  
Hermione stepped into the bathroom and found Parvati and Lavender in their school uniforms each holding a razor and rinsing it out in the sink.  
  
"What're you doing?" Ron in Hermione's body asked.  
  
"What does it look like?" Lavender asked, motioning towards the razors.  
  
"What did you--" Hermione's voice began, before her eyes glanced down at their fresh calves below the skirt. "Oh." Trying hard not to go red, Ron's mind in Hermione's body looked away. Ron controlled Hermione to open a cabinet and fetch a toothbrush.  
  
"You should too," Parvati said, glancing down at the calves of Hermione.  
  
"No, I don't need to," Ron said a little too quickly.  
  
"It looks bad."  
  
"Would you mind your own business? My razors are all.. er.. blunt."  
  
"What, you use Muggle razors?" Parvati asked.  
  
"No."  
  
"But magic razors don't get blunt," Lavender pointed out.  
  
"Oh," Ron said. "Right. Er.. right. I will then. When you clear out."  
  
They soon left and Ron took out a bottle labeled "Shaving Potion" from the cabinet, and then a razor from a bag with Hermione's name on it. Hesitantly, he set a foot on the closed toilet and poured some of the stuff over the calf. He slowly spread it out, nervously, with one finger.  
  
Realizing he was taking too long, he quickly used the whole hand to smear the potion all over as fast as possible, feeling oddly guilty touching a leg that didn't belong to him. A _girl's _leg. _Hermione's_ leg. Hermione's leg that was in need of a quick shave. The potion sunk into the skin, and the skin was dry, but very soft. Hesitantly, he removed the cover from the razor and set it down near the ankle, dragging it up. However, he pressed a little too hard and saw a small glisten of blood before he felt the sting.  
  
"Ow! Bloody razor," Ron said under his breath. His words were literal.  
  
He rinsed it out in the sink and tried again, this time from a different spot on the leg, dragging it especially slowly. Someone opening the door abruptly startled him and he jumped, the razor cutting Hermione's leg again.  
  
"Ow!" Ron said, louder this time, taking his foot off the toilet and turning to see who entered. It was the body of Ginny.  
  
"What.. what _are_ you doing to Hermione's legs?" Harry inside Ginny's body asked curiously.  
  
"Er.. shaving them," Ron said matter-of-factly.  
  
"Did she ask you to?" Harry asked him.  
  
"No..."  
  
"Oh she didn't?" Harry said using Ginny's voice with a chuckle. "Then why, exactly, are you..?"  
  
"Oh, sick!" Hermione's voice half-shouted, throwing the razor into the sink. "Harry, don't think that. Parvati and Lavender pressured me to. I was going to stop," he explained, motioning towards the two nicks in her leg with blood slowly dribbling out of them.   
  
Harry smirked. "You had better," Ginny's voice said, taking a wand out from her pocket. Harry controlled her to do a charm that made the two cuts disappear. "That is, before you did any real damage that couldn't be repaired just like that."  
  
Hermione and Ginny's bodies washed their faces and brushed teeth before going to bed quickly, before Parvati and Lavender said anything else.  
  
*****  
  
While this was happening, the interview was commencing in the Common Room.  
  
"Ah, you're here!" Rita said, grinning as the bodies of Harry and Ron sat in armchairs across from her. "Lovely. Thirsty?" she asked, holding out two goblets of pumpkin juice.  
  
"Thanks," Harry and Ron's voices said uncertainly. They hesitated, holding the goblets, but took a small sip each after seeing Rita drink from a goblet of juice identical to theirs. It didn't taste odd, and they were thirsty..  
  
Rita took a small empty vial off of the tray the drinks were on and placed it in her pocket. The rest of the Common Room was empty; everyone else had gone to bed.  
  
"So," Rita said, taking out her parchment and quill again, smiling as she saw the bodies of Harry and Ron loosen up quite a bit. "You," she said, tapping Harry's body on the shoulder. "You're Ron. Tell me a bit about what it's like being stuck in Harry's body."  
  
"Oh, I suppose it's all right," Ginny said. A feeling washed over her, she just wanted to spill her feelings and thoughts straight out of her mouth. Rita Skeeter must have put Veritaserum in their potions! There was no way of stopping it; words were pouring out of her mouth faster than her brain could stop them. She continued. "But it's kind of odd, you know? I mean, I really like him a lot. I've always really fancied him like that with him since we met."  
  
"Is that so?" Rita said, almost dropping her paper and quill in surprise and excitement. She scrawled down words quickly. Her Veritaserum had worked, but she hadn't expected Ron Weasley to tell her he fell for Harry Potter. Unbeknownst to her, this was not Ron who was speaking to her, but Ginny Weasley. "Tell me more!"  
  
"Well, I didn't tell that many people, but some of them, like Hermione and my brothers, noticed. He is a hero, after all, ever so charming, and modest! Do you see these eyes?" Ginny asked inside of Harry's body, taking off the glasses.  
  
"They are very charming indeed," Rita said, still shocked at confessions she was getting. "Erm.. Harry, let's move on to you. How do you feel about Ron?.. I mean, being in his body and all?"  
  
"Erm, it's quite different from what I expected," Hermione in Ron's body confessed. "He's quite taller than I'm used to being.."  
  
"Right, right, that's lovely dear; now how do you feel about what Ron here has just confessed? How do you feel about Ron?" Rita Skeeter asked excitedly and impatiently, quill quickly scrawling notes on her paper.  
  
"Ron? Hm. Last year, I think he wanted to go to the Yule Ball with me. He got angry when I went with someone else, and later we argued about it. I finally said that if he wanted to go with me, he should have asked me straight off instead of waiting and having me as a last resort," Hermione in Ron's body recalled.  
  
"Oh really? And if he were to ask you, what would you say?" Rita asked.  
  
Ron's lips curled into a small smile. "Yeah, I'd go with him. I'd actually be pretty flattered if he asked."  
  
"Lovely," Rita said, grinning as she scrawled down the response. "Well.. that was an _amazing_ interview, boys, we simply _must _do it again sometime. Thank you for your time, I'll be leaving now." And she hurriedly left.  
  
Minutes later, the Veritaserum wore off and Hermione in Ron's body was able to speak to Ginny in Harry's body again.  
  
"Oh no," Ron's voice said, covering his face in large freckled hands. "What have we done? It's all over now!"  
  
"What do you mean _we_?" Harry's voice asked miserably. "It was all me. How could I have fallen for that?"  
  
"Don't worry," Ron's voice said. Hermione was attempting to calm down. "We'll.. have to tell the truth. First thing tomorrow, we go right to Dumbledore."  
  
"Harry and Ron will be so angry," Harry's voice said. "We made them sound like.. like _they_ were.. Ugh, when the paper arrives tomorrow, everyone in Hogwarts will think the worst."  
  
"Not just Hogwarts," Ron's voice added. "All of the Daily Prophet readers will too! All of the wizarding world.. We have no choice. We have to tell."  
  
"But not now, it's past curfew.. first thing tomorrow, after we see Harry and Ron, right?" Ginny in Harry's body asked.  
  
"Right," Hermione answered. And they headed for their dormitory, hearts pounding and stomachs full of butterflies.  
  
*****  
  
A/N: Review, s'il vous plait! Thank yooou. 


	4. The Secret's Out

A/N: I like this chapter a lot.. I think it's a bit funny at times, please feel free to review! Much much thanks to eedoe! I MEAN THIS! Now, enjoy.  
  
*****  
  
_Alternate Identity: A Polyjuice Potion Story  
_Chapter Four: The Secret's Out  
  
The next morning, Hermione and Ginny woke up early in the boy's dorm, in their natural forms, took the potion, and got dressed as quickly as possible, before everyone else got up. They wanted to come before the owls came in with the mail, because some students had subscriptions to the Daily Prophet and they did not want to think about Harry and Ron's pictures on the front cover, or what the headline might proclaim.  
  
They were one of the first down in the hall, and only a few professors were there, including Snape and Dumbledore. They both knew to go straight to Dumbledore. His back was facing them, and when they called for him to turn around, the noticed what he was holding. It was the morning edition of the Daily Prophet.  
  
"Professor Dumbledore, we have to tell you something!" Harry's voice was first to exclaim.  
  
He turned to them. "Hello, boys," he said, surprised. "It seems you've made the paper."  
  
"No," they said, out of breath, shaking their heads.  
  
"We took the wrong potions!" Ron's voice blurted out. "We took the wrong Polyjuice Potions by mistake! I'm Hermione and this is Ginny," Ron's voice said, gesturing with a hand.  
  
Dumbledore stood silent for a few moments. "Ah. Then am I correct to presume you were stuck in boys' bodies?"  
  
"Yes," they said guiltily.  
  
"And Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley are stuck in your own bodies?"  
  
"Yes," they said, eyes cast downward.  
  
"You should have come straight to me," he said, smiling slightly with a twinkle in his eyes that uncomfortably made them think he had known all along.  
  
Meanwhile, in the girls' dorm, the bodies of the real Harry and Ron were lying in bed. They were accustomed to waking up earlier than usual, and they did, taking their potion under the sheets and getting dressed, not suspecting a thing.  
  
One by one, the girls in the dorm got up, took their potions, and began getting ready for another day of classes as well. Everyone walked down to the Great Hall at about the same time to have breakfast.  
  
"When we realized that we should have told you in the first place, it was too late," Ron's voice said. "_I_ realized that too late."  
  
Dumbledore nodded, opening the paper and grinning slightly. "So when Rita Skeeter believed Ron to be confessing feelings for Harry, it was Miss Weasley speaking?"  
  
Harry's head nodded, going red.  
  
"I understand. You may return to your table."  
  
Students began filling the Great Hall soon and the bodies of Ron and Harry took their usual seats, looking nervous. Soon, owls came flying in with the mail.  
  
"What's the matter?" Hermione's voice asked Hermione's body, noticing the nervous expression she often used to use.  
  
"Erm.. you know that interview with Rita Skeeter we had last night?" Harry's voice asked Hermione and Ginny's bodies.  
  
"Yeah?" they both asked, curiously.  
  
Harry's and Ron's voices began frantically speaking at once. The ears of Hermione and Ginny's only caught the words "Tricked us--Veritaserum--Please don't be mad!"  
  
"What?" Hermione's voice asked.  
  
At that particular moment, many owls swooped in through windows, dropping mail in front of students. Both Hermione and Ginny, in the boys' bodies, knew that Ron had a subscription to the Daily Prophet--he always liked to read the Quidditch section-- and expected the worst.  
  
As usual, they all switched mail, as each package has been dropped on the wrong person-- and Hermione's body, expecting Ron's mail, grabbed the Daily Prophet and making a horrified face as his eyes scanned over the headline-- _Local Boy Ronald Weasley Admits Feelings for Harry Potter in Bodyswitching Project!_  
  
He was rendered motionless, shocked at the headline for a few seconds, before the first words escaped his mouth.  
  
"Bloody.. HELL!" Hermione's voice roared, not caring who overheard, as Ron in her body jabbed his sister's body in the side, trying to get Harry to look at the headline.  
  
Ginny's eyes widened to their full extent, before opening her mouth to emit what would have been an awfully loud girlish scream-- Hermione's hand covered the mouth before sound escaped it.  
  
Harry and Ron's bodies couldn't do much but look on helplessly at their best friends panicking.  
  
Hermione and Ginny's hands tore open the newspaper, frantic to see if the article was as bad as the headline.  
  
"How could-- you made _us_ look like we were--!" Ginny's voice stuttered.  
  
"We had no choice! She tricked us into drinking something with Veritaserum in it!" Ron's voice explained.  
  
"You actually _took a drink from Rita Skeeter!?_" Hermione asked, raising her voice to a high level. "How thick can you possibly _get_?"  
  
"WAIT!" Ginny's voice said loudly. The other three calmed down to listen to Harry in Ginny's body and they noticed that the hall had gone dreadfully silent. Everyone's eyes seemed to be on them.  
  
Wondering how long it had been silent for and when they could explain their mistake, the four looked around uncomfortably.  
  
Dumbledore immediately rose and went to the front of the Great Hall. "May I please make an announcement!" he said to the hall. All eyes were now on him. "There has been a mistake with the potion," Dumbledore explained. "An error involving the four you are regarding. They took the wrong potions, and ended up in a different body than they expected. Rita Skeeter interviewed the two girls in the two boys' bodies, using Veritaserum."  
  
A chatter arose in the hall, everyone knew using Veritaserum was a big deal.  
  
"But, do not worry," Dumbledore said, smiling, "because we have caught the culprit, Rita Skeeter herself," he said, holding up a jar with a beetle inside it, with the same markings around its eyes as Rita Skeeter's glasses. Everyone sighed in relief, not wanting to experience the embarrassment that Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny felt just then.  
  
"May I please ask the four to see me after breakfast," he said, ending his little speech.  
  
Harry and Ron's eyes wandered to the other boys in the dorm, who looked at them oddly, now knowing that they were not of their own kind. They caught some of them whispering to eachother things like "What did they think they were doing?", "Why didn't they do anything about it?". Fred Weasley was even brave enough to say, "How come _they_ got girls in their dorm?" and George quickly followed up with "Nothing on you, Gin." Harry and Ron's eyes quickly traveled elsewhere at the mention of that.  
  
Hermione and Ginny's gaze traveled to the girls' in their new temporary dormitory, who looked at them in disgust, and they caught some of them whispering things like "I knew they were acting oddly," and "Those perverts!"  
  
*****  
  
After breakfast, the four people the school was talking about stayed in the Great Hall to see Dumbledore.  
  
"What did you want to see us about?" Ron's voice asked him.  
  
Dumbledore smiled, and with a wave of his wand their nametags switched-- the one on Hermione's body read "Ronald Weasley", the one on Ron's body said "Hemione Granger", the tag on Harry displayed "Virginia Weasley", and the one on Ginny said "Harry Potter". He had switched them so they displayed the correct information.  
  
"You are free to go to your class," he said, smiling.  
  
"You mean.. we're going to just stay as we are?" Ron in Hermione's body asked, dumbfounded.  
  
"Precisely."  
  
"But, Professor--" Harry's voice began.  
  
"You were prepared to stay this way anyway if you weren't discovered, correct?" he asked. "All I'm doing is making it so you can be yourselves. You can now go to your normal classes, which are the classes of the person that your nametag displays. And if I switched them correctly, the nametag displays the person underneath the new shell."  
  
They nodded, assuring him they were switched correctly.  
  
You can also sleep in your normal dorms from now on, the one your nametag would direct you to, providing you get changed in privacy from the other occupants of the dorms. You planned this out quite well, didn't you, when you realized you'd made a mistake?" he asked, his blue eyes twinkling.  
  
"We did, actually," Ron's voice replied. "Er-- thank you, Professor."  
  
They were relieved to go back to their normal schedules and went off to their first classes after switching books.  
  
Some students were satisfied with what Dumbledore explained, about the mistake in the potions and the Veritaserum, but others were still skeptical about it. How could they add the hairs and then accidentally switch potions? Draco Malfoy, who was in Blaise Zabini's body, was a strong believer of this.  
  
"What Dumbledore said wasn't true," he said loudly to his clique of friends in the hallways, which included Crabbe and Goyle, who had switched places as well. "He's always favored Potter and Weasley above the rest of the students. I always thought they'd admit the truth about eachother one day. There was probably no Veritaserum involved!" he exclaimed.  
  
Everyone who had a copy of The Daily Prophet read the article.  
  
_The Headmaster of Hogwarts, who has recently  
assigned a dangerous body-switching project  
involving Polyjuice Potion for fourth years and up,  
has allowed me, Rita Skeeter, to interview one  
of the most well-known students of Hogwarts:  
Harry Potter. Along with him is the person he  
has chosen to switch bodies with, Ronald  
Weasley. Feelings and confessions poured out  
of their mouths as I interviewed them, and the  
information I was looking for was nowhere near  
the information I received.  
  
Ron Weasley, after being asked what it was  
like to be in Harry Potter's body, replied: "Oh,  
I suppose it's all right. But it's kind of odd, you  
know? I mean, I really like him a lot. I've always  
really fancied him since we met." I was surprised  
at his words as I wrote his response. "He is a  
hero, after all, ever so charming, and modest!  
Do you see these eyes?" Ron removed the   
glasses on Harry's face, making bright green   
eyes more visible.  
  
Upon asking Harry Potter the same question,  
I got a just as surprising response. Starting  
slowly, Harry admitted to the changes he went  
through. "It's quite different from what I expected,"  
he confessed. "He's quite taller than I'm used to  
being."  
  
After being asked about how he felt about Ron's  
confession to him, Harry replied, "Last year, I  
think he wanted to go to the Yule Ball with me.  
He got angry when I went with someone else, and  
later we argued about it. I finally said that if he  
wanted to go with me, he should have asked me  
straight off instead of waiting and having me as a  
last resort," Harry in Ron's body recalled. His  
thin lips formed a smile. "I'd actually be pretty  
flattered if he asked."  
  
Though this interview held secrets I had no  
intention of uncovering, I was surprised and  
delighted at both boys' honesty and hope the  
best for their project and perhaps for their future  
as well.  
  
_"What does she mean, _and perhaps for our future as well?_" Hermione's voice asked as she stomped through the halls, now wearing a nametag that announced, "Ron Weasley".  
  
"I'm really sorry about the interview," Ron's voice said to Hermione's face. They talked it out in the hallway after lunch going to the Common Room for afternoon break, which left Harry and Ginny's bodies walking along behind them.  
  
There was an awkward silence between the two of them. Ginny plucked up enough courage to speak through Harry's body, turning his head to face the body of Ginny. "I-- I'm really sorry about the article, Harry. I really am. I was the one who opened my big mouth first, and I had no idea all that would come out.." she trailed off.  
  
Ginny's eyelashes were cast downward as Harry inside of her body thought of how to reply. "It's not your fault. Rita Skeeter is awful like that. I'm not surprised to hear she snuck Veritaserum into your drink, that seems just what she would do anyway.."  
  
"But you know what I told her in the interview," Harry's voice said, his face going pink. "And I can't deny I said it. It was true." Harry's eyes remained on the floor, heart going a mile a minute, admitting things she'd never let loose otherwise, unless she had more Veritaserum.  
  
There was a moment's pause. "If you're absolutely sure you didn't want me to know that.. then you can put a Memory Charm on me at the end of the month, if you want.  
  
"Oh.. thank you for understanding. I'll.. I'll think about making you forget, Harry, only if you want to."  
  
But as Harry thought of forgetting all the things Ginny had said about him, how she made him feel especially significant, he wasn't sure he wanted to.  
  
*****  
  
Ginny in Harry's body attended her fourth-year classes while Harry in Ginny's body, Hermione in Ron's body, and Ron in Hermione's body all went to their normal fifth-year classes. People asked them questions throughout the day, and they were relieved to be able to go to their dorms-- their normal dorms-- at the end of the long, long day.  
  
In the girls' dorm, the bodies of Harry and Ron carrying the minds of Ginny and Hermione rested, feeling very awkward amongst all of the other girls. Knowing the potion would wear off soon comforted them.  
  
"Well," Parvati said to the two of them. "Welcome back, you two."  
  
"What's it like being in a _boy's_ body?" the boy-crazy Lavender asked.  
  
"It's odd," Ron's body admitted.  
  
"But what's it _like_? Ginny, do you care to tell us?" another girl from across the dorm asked, giggling. They had all seen the article and knew how it revealed exactly what it was like for Ginny.  
  
Harry's face went slightly pink. "None of your business. The potion's going to wear off soon anyway. I'm going to bed."  
  
"Why won't you tell us?" Parvati asked.  
  
"Because we don't want to. They're our friends.. and gossiping about what it's like being them is nasty, if you're going where I think you're going with that question," Ron's voice said. "Good night."  
  
"Hermione--" Parvati began.  
  
"I said good night!"  
  
"Hermione, Ron tried to shave your legs when he was in your body!"  
  
"He _what?_"  
  
In the boys' dorm, something similar was happening. All of the boys felt uncomfortable at the sights of girls in their dorm. Some were trying not to mind them and others, who were more friendly with Harry and Ron than the others were, asked questions that Harry and Ron did not feel like answering.  
  
Ron in Hermione's body had just come out of the bathroom in Hermione's pajamas. Harry had just changed before him, in Ginny's body. Neville, Seamus, and Lee sat on their beds, seeing two girls in their dorm where there normally would be two boys.  
  
"So, how is it being.. you know," Neville, said, eyes traveling everywhere in the room but at the two he spoke to.  
  
"What do you mean?" Ginny's voice asked him.  
  
"He just wants to know how much different it is being a girl," Seamus explained.  
  
Ginny and Hermione's faces looked at eachother for a split second, and then they burst out laughing. "How-- how different do you _think_ it is?" Hermione's voice choked out through the laughter.  
  
"We've only been living as girls for a few days, but we know _exactly_ how different it is," Ginny's voice assured them. "Ginny Weasley by day, Harry Potter by night-- how confused would you be?" Ginny's voice asked.  
  
"Neville's just trying to put it nicely," Lee said, raising his eyebrows. "We're fifteen-year-old boys, that's all."  
  
"Okay," Ginny's voice said uncertainly, Harry's voice controlling it. "So? What are you trying to do, be perverted without actually _sounding_ that way?"  
  
"No, no," Neville said, going pink, Lee and Seamus grinning and chuckling at the sight of the awkward position they put Neville in.  
  
"Let me get this straight," Hermione's voice said. "I know all of your potions already wore off already, but listen to me. That," here he controlled her to point towards the body of Ginny, "is my sister's body. Eyes off. And this," here he motioned at the body he was in, "is Hermione's body. Soon Ginny's body will turn into Harry, and this one will turn into me, Ron. No questions."  
  
"Well, whatever you two think is breast," Seamus said absently, not immediately realizing his error.  
  
"_What_ was that?" Ginny's voice asked as the other boys held back laughter.  
  
"I said whatever you think is _best, _Harry, _best_," Seamus assured them with an apologetic smile.  
  
No one objected, quickly changing the subject to something less awkward.  
  
The bodies of Ginny and Hermione went to bed. What Ron (in Hermione's body) had said wasn't exactly true.. they had about three-quarters of an hour before the potion actually wore off. Without giving it a second thought, they went to bed.  
  
In the boys' dorm the next day, the bodies of Ron and Harry woke up, happy to be themselves again and knowing they don't have to stay under the covers until their potion was taken. They got up and stretched. Ron felt odd. He thought that it was only the fact that he was wearing Hermione's pajamas, which were a little too short for him anyway. But he turned back to look at the bed, the covers ruffled and messy, when he jumped back with shock and surprise.  
  
*****  
  
Meanwhile in the girls' dorm, Hermione woke up in her own body and glanced at the calendar and thought sleepily. _Oh, look at the date.. But I'm prepared, I've already.. RON! _She had forgotten to remind him of a brief event..  
  
She took her potion, turning into Ron, and rushed out of the dorm, not waking up Harry. She had to get to Ron.  
  
She burst into the dorm, waking up a few of the boys.  
  
"Hermione! What are you doing here?" Seamus asked, who was already up.  
  
Ron's eyes turned to Seamus, a blank, obvious expression on her face. "I've _been here before,_" she told him.  
  
Ron, who was standing in front of his bed, hadn't taken his potion yet and Hermione had, so there were two Rons in the room. The body of Ron with Ron inside it was still in shock, looking at the sheets, where there was a fairly small bloodstain that had not been there the day before.  
  
The body of Ron-- the one that had Hermione inside, that is-- cringed and walked towards the real Ron, patting him on the shoulder. "Erm.. welcome to womanhood, Ron."  
  
*****  
  
"So you're saying that I.. you know.. in my sleep?" the body of Hermione asked the body of Ron at lunch.  
  
"You must have," Ron's voice replied, "between the time you laid down to sleep, still looking like a girl, and the time the potion wore off during the night."  
  
"And it lasts..?"  
  
"Usually four days."  
  
"Erm, Ginny?" Ginny's nervous voice said to Harry's body. "Do you-- I mean, if the same is going to happen to you anytime soon.. well, to me, I mean, I really don't want to be surprised like Ron was.. erm.."  
  
Harry's mouth actually cracked a small smile, amused at Ginny's body, Harry controlling it, turning pink. "No," he said. "Er.. maybe on the last few days."  
  
Meanwhile, Ron's voice was discussing the topic with Hermione's body, telling Ron's mind inside how to handle the next few days.  
  
"..and you'll just need to mind that. You might have mood swings. Just.. trust me on this, okay?" Ron's voice had just finished up telling Hermione.  
  
Ron in Hermione's body said nothing, appearing to be deep in thought, as if searching his mind for something.  
  
"..Hello? Do you understand?" Hermione in Ron's body asked again.  
  
Again, nothing.  
  
"Ron, say something!"  
  
"I want chocolate."  
  
*****  
  
A/N: Right. So the secret is out, and the project's been going on for six days. What will happen next? Between Ron and Hermione's arguments, Harry and Ginny's awkwardness, and the rest of the school understanding what's going on, who knows? I do. You keep reading, and I keep writing. So review so that I know people are actually reading.   



	5. Of Mood Swings and Arguments

A/N: Woo. I'm back now. Sorry, people who were reading this, for my lack of updating. This fic's pretty AU now, since I planned out the general storyline in my head _before_ OotP came out. So, no spoilers here.  
  
*****_  
  
Alternate Identity: A Polyjuice Potion Story_  
Chapter Five: Of Mood Swings and Arguments  
  
For the next few days, Hermione's body with Ron's mind in it tended to grow a tad disgruntled at times._  
  
SLAM!_  
  
The door of the bathroom in the boy's dorm flew open and hit the wall. "OKAY!" Hermione's voice roared, her face red and her white-knuckled fist clutching a toothbrush, "WHICH ONE OF YOU MOVED MY TOOTHBRUSH!? DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT TOOK TO FIND IT!? I KNOW IT WAS ONE OF YOU! _WHAT_ DO YOU HAVE AGAINST MY TOOTHBRUSH?! WHAT DID IT_ EVER_ DO TO YOU?! _DON'T DO IT AGAIN!_"_  
  
SLAM!_  
  
The door nearly flew off its hinges with the force with which Ron in Hermione's body shut it.  
  
The boys in the dorm, including Harry in the body of Ginny, were paralyzed for several moments before a chatter arose in the room again.  
  
March 10th was day four of this horrid monthly event, and everyone who had ever come in contact with Hermione's body in the past four days hoped that it would finally cease.  
  
"Oh, Ron? There was something I've been meaning to ask you," Ron's stern voice said, facing Hermione's body, Hermione's mind controlling Ron.  
  
"What?"  
  
"A while ago, I heard from someone in the girls' dorm that you tried to _shave my legs?_" Ron's voice said, being controlled by Hermione, his voice raising slightly towards the end of the sentence.  
  
"Oh did you?" Hermione's voice said lightly. "Do you have a problem with that?"  
  
"_Yes," _Ron said, going red a little, "They're my legs and none of your business! Don't you have any respect for me?"  
  
"They_ did _need it," Hermione's voice muttered.  
  
"_Ron!_"  
  
"Why do you argue so often?" an irritated Ginny's voice controlled by Harry asked.  
  
"The relationship is based on insults," Hermione's voice said simply, grinning Ronnishly. "That's how it's always been."  
  
Ron's eyes rolled.  
  
That day, there was another Quidditch practice, which Harry attended, except he was in Ginny's body. He was in a different body but had no choice but to use his own Quidditch uniform. It was a bit long and baggy, but it wouldn't matter when he got into the air.  
  
"Well, well!" the body of George with a nametag of Fred said. "Yet another Weasley joins the team, eh Harry?"  
  
"Heh.. yeah," Harry managed to get out. He hoped they wouldn't be mad at him for being in Ginny's body. They didn't seem to be.  
  
"Well, you know the drill then, Harry, one of us'll have a golf ball, you're going to try to catch it. Right?" Fred's mouth spoke, with George's body inside. "Ready?"  
  
Ginny's head unsurely bobbed up and down in reply.  
  
"See you in the air," George's voice said, before the two twins kicked off.  
  
Harry controlled Ginny's leg to swing over the broomstick and he kicked off, having to concentrate much more than he was used to. He could no longer deftly maneuver around in the air; he had to put some effort into it. He successfully got into the air, the crisp March wind blowing Ginny's fiery hair back and occasionally getting in the way of his vision as he controlled Ginny's body to get used to swooping and diving.  
  
He rode around for a bit, controlling Ginny's body, keeping an eye out for that golf ball. Though he was in someone else's body, his knack for spotting things remained a strong point of his, which is why he saw Angelina toss the white golf ball into the air.  
  
He went after it, keeping mind he had to balance and accelerate at the same time. The golf ball fell further and futher, but Ginny's body followed it, and when her body was at a distance that Harry's mind could control her hand to reach out and grab it, he nearly lost balance and almost slipped off the broom altogether. He had to stop in midair to steady himself. A bit disappointed, he watched the ball fall to the ground.  
  
After repeating this general process several times, he let Fred and George know he'd like to quit. He landed, and Harry in Ginny's body called up to Ginny in Harry's body, who was in the stands along with Ron and Hermione. Harry's body went down the stands and near to the pitch, meeting Ginny's body.  
  
"Do you want to try and fly?" Ginny's voice asked, Harry controlling her hand to hold out his Firebolt to the body that normally flew it.  
  
Harry's eyes widened. "Would I," his voice said, grinning and accepting the broom. "I'll have plenty of experience, being in your body."  
  
"Good luck," Ginny's voice said, before heading off to the stands to check on Ron and Hermione. He overheard a less-than-pleasant conversation as he approached.  
  
"Ugh!" Hermione's voice said, shifting around in the seat. "This.. this _thing_ is so uncomfortable."  
  
"Quiet, Ron," Ron's voice quickly said. "There are no alternatives. None that I'll let you try, anyway." Hermione controlled Ron to put his head in his hands, mortified this actually had to happen to Ron.  
  
"No wonder you're so moody like this once a month," Hermione's voice grumbled. "And I thought maybe you were a werewolf, and it just happened to be the full moon at that time, but no.."  
  
"I'm the one who's helping you!" Ron's voice said loudly into his lap, face still down.  
  
"Quiet for a moment," Ginny's voice said.  
  
"You're back already?" Hermione's voice asked.  
  
"Apparently," he said, looking down at himself-- or Ginny's self, more like, confirming that he indeed was back.  
  
"Where's Ginny?" Hermione's voice demanded.  
  
"Calm down," Ginny's voice said. "She's out on the pitch. I lent her my broom for a bit."  
  
"Really?" Ron's voice said, looking up to the pitch. The two were taking a break from arguing for now.  
  
Ginny in Harry's body was out on the pitch, nearly shaking with excitement. Fred landed and fetched the golfball, explaining what was going to happen as he did with Harry, and they were off.  
  
Ginny controlled Harry's feet to kick off. She was uncertain at first, but then she found that his body was at ease in the air, comfortable and skilled, sailing around easily. It was a wonderful feeling; Ginny had never flown like this before. Harry's experienced flying was one of the reasons she looked up to him; the hard, concentrated expression on his face when he chased the Snitch, the smile that lit up his eyes when it was confined to his grasp.  
  
She swooped and turned, loving the adrenaline rush and the wind blowing back his short hair. Carefully keeping an eye on the other players to see if one of them would throw the ball, she rose in the air towards the rest of the practice; Fred and George batting the Bludgers back and forth and the Chasers trying to score goals against the Keeper.  
  
After flying around for a few minutes, she saw one of her brothers throw the ball, and she went right after it, Harry's body sinking low against the broom, accelerating and diving, following the ball, and when it finally was within her reach, she thrust a hand off of the broomstick handle and the small white ball was soon safe in Harry's hand. The bodies of Ginny, Hermione, and Ron applauded from the stands, as did the rest of the Quidditch team.  
  
Ginny in Harry's body returned the ball to Fred and claimed she wanted to stop flying for now. In Harry's body, she landed. Ginny enjoyed this; she couldn't believe how incredibly good and relaxing it felt being up in the air. It was addicting; she would have kept playing if her mind didn't keep telling her that although it was fun, it was a bit frightening for someone who had barely done it before. She made her way back up to the stands.  
  
Harry's arm held out the Firebolt to Ginny's body. Her face was grinning. "It was fun?" Ginny's voice asked.  
  
"Oh, yes, very," Harry's voice gushed. "I couldn't have done it without your Quidditch skills. It feels amazing!"  
  
Ginny's head nodded in agreement. "It really does," her voice said. "I've always loved it, myself."  
  
They all headed in,   
  
The next day, Ron in Hermione's body informed Hermione in Ron's body that the "thing" (which was the only word Ron'd call it) was over, and everyone was happy.  
  
That day Ron recieved letters from his Mum and Dad, and Bill. Each had read the Daily Prophet on the day Rita Skeeter's article appeared in it, and all the letters were frantically trying to confirm that there was a mixup.  
  
Ron wrote back to both letters, his writing very neat as he had to do it with Hermione's hand. He was in the Common Room in her body, and Ron's body looked over at the paper he wrote on._  
  
Dear Mum and Dad,  
  
Don't worry about the article. It's a rather confusing story. See, when we were taking the potions for the project, we accidentally took the wrong ones and I turned into Hermione. Hermione turned into me, Harry into Ginny, and Ginny into Harry. So it was actually Hermione and Ginny answering Skeeter's questions, not me and Harry. Skeeter slipped them some Veritaserum, so they answered all her questions truthfully. Unfortunately we have to stay in the bodies we got when we took the first potion, so I'm still in Hermione's body. Sorry for the mixup. I hope it didn't alarm you too much.  
  
Love,  
Ron_  
  
"Look at what Mum wrote on her half of the letter," Harry's voice said, Ginny's mind inside reading the letter. "She said, '_I respect your decision when you admitted feelings for Harry, Ron, but I am still surprised. I always thought you and Hermione would get together.'_"  
  
"I know what the letter says!" Ron snapped through Hermione's voice. Ginny's voice emitted a snicker, but Ron's voice remained silent.  
  
"I'm going to send these," Hermione's voice announced, folding the letters and sticking them in envelopes. "I think Pig's in the Owlery. I'll be back in a bit." Hermione's body, and Ron's mind, left the room.  
  
Four mornings later at breakfast, a red envelope was dropped on the table in front of Hermione. It was addressed to Ron, and definitely a Howler.  
  
"Oh no," Hermione's voice uttered. "It's definitely Mum. She'll kill me."  
  
"Why?" a curious Ron's voice asked,  
  
"I'll just get it over with," Hermione's voice decided, quickly ripping open the letter--  
  
"_RONALD WEASLEY! HOW DARE YOU BE SO CARELESS AS TO TAKE THE WRONG POTION! HERMIONE'S POTION, NO LESS! THAT POOR GIRL IS PROBABLY TRAUMATIZED WITH HAVING A BOY HAVING TO LIVE IN HER BODY FOR AN ENTIRE MONTH! YOU HAD BETTER BE RESPECTING HER PRIVACY, RONALD! AND IF I GET ONE COMPLAINT FROM HER OR HER PARENTS, YOU DON'T EVEN WANT TO KNOW THE CONSEQUENCES! _Oh, and I'm very glad you're not in love with Harry, dear." The red envelope burst into flames, curled into ashes, and mysteriously blew away.  
  
Everyone in the vicinity was laughing at the Howler's message. Ron's face was buried in his hands-- Hermione controlling them-- and Hermione's face was still wide-eyed and staring, then her face and tips of her ears went pink like Ron's usually did.  
  
Ginny inside Harry's body was trying not to grin at her mum going off like that in a Howler to Ron.  
  
Ron's face, crimson, emerged from inside his large hands. Hermione just thought of something, thus Ron's face smiled a little slyly. "You'd better respect my body, Ron, like any other girl would treat her body" Ron's voice said to Hermione's body. "You wouldn't want me to go off and send a letter to your mum, now, would you?"  
  
Hermione's expression was hard, fixated on Ron's face. "You wouldn't."  
  
"Annoy me and I just might inform your mum about your attempt at shaving," Ron's voice said gleefully.  
  
"That's blackmail! So you don't want me to use the toilets, or change your clothes, or _bathe_ anymore?" Hermione's harsh voice came out. Ron was surprised he had made her tone that way, for it was the exact tone she set on them when she was deeply disappointed at them forgetting to study for a big test, usually Snape's.  
  
"Do it respectfully," Ron's voice said simply. Hermione was surprised she had made his tone that way, for it was the exact tone Ron set on her when telling her he did not care if he got another bad mark on one of Snape's tests.  
  
"_Respectfully?_ What d'you want me to do, shut my eyes?"  
  
"If you must."  
  
"I can't do those things blindly!"  
  
"Well, just use being inside my body the way any other girl would."  
  
"Any girl?" Hermione's voice asked.  
  
"Well.. Most girls, then," a slightly perplexed Ron's voice said. "What does it matter? I'll send a letter to your mum if you don't, that's all."  
  
There was a pause in which Ron inhaled deeply from Hermione's nose, trying to control his fury, glare still fixed on the form of Ron. "Fine," he said. "I'm not going to argue. I am going to treat your body the way most girls treat their bodies. All right?"  
  
"Fine," Ron's voice said, his arms crossed and a smile of satisfaction on his face.  
  
Ron in Hermione's body left early from dinner that day, lying to the bodies of Harry, Ron, and Ginny that he didn't feel well. He went straight to the empty common room, then up the stairs to the girls' dorms. Unfortunately, they, unlike the common room, were not completely empty.  
  
"What are you doing here?" Parvati (who, Ron supposed, was actually Lavender) said, who was rummaging around in her drawer.  
  
"Er-- my potion wore off, and my flask's empty, and I just came.. to.. get some more from my cabinet." Without waiting for a reply, Ron in Hermione's body made a beeline for the bathroom.  
  
A few minutes later, her body emerged and hurriedly left the dorm, then went to the boys' dorms instead, pushing a few handfuls worth of stuff under his bed, and he remained there until the others came up after dinner to sleep.  
  
"Feeling all right?" Ginny's voice said, finding Hermione's body lying in Ron's bed.  
  
"Yes, very much, thank you Harry" Hermione's voice said to Ginny's body, smiling.  
  
"I don't like that grin, Ron," Ginny replied.  
  
"Well, you know how Hermione was lecturing me on treating her body the way most girls treat their bodies while I'm in it this morning?" Hermione's voice said as she sat up.  
  
Some of the other boys entering the room began listening, for they, too, had overheard Ron and Hermione's breakfast row.  
  
"Yeah," Ginny's voice said slowly.  
  
"Well, I'm going to give her a surprise," Hermione said furtively.  
  
"Okay, but I'm having nothing to do with this, okay?" Ginny's voice asked.  
  
"Right."  
  
"So if Hermione gets mad it's all on you, all right?"  
  
"Deal," Hermione's voice said again, still grinning.  
  
"Why're you so keen on getting Hermione mad?" Ginny asked curiously.  
  
Hermione's stare turned odd, and looked at Ginny. "I'm not keen on it. It's just.. Well, it's not like I haven't done it before."  
  
"Right you are."  
  
*****  
  
You know what to do, I hope! I could use some reviews. 


	6. Making Up, Two Ways

A/N: I'm so OVERJOYED!! I got reviews! Yay! I luff you people. Thank you very much!  
  
Mythistica - Here, I updated. Yesss, it feels good to make a guy suffer through womanhood.  
ShadowCrawler - Thank you! Oooh, good idea, in a strange way. Except they can't take a potion with another hair in it.. They altered the potion while making it so they couldn't switch partners. Guess I didn't make that too clear, but it's there.. Good idea though!  
Voldie On Varsity Track - Okay, number one, I like your pen name. Thank you, here's a nice long chapter, and I'll check out your stuff.  
Stars - OKAY!  
Elderberry - Sorry your head hurts. Mine does too, a lot-- the pain, the pain!-- but anyway. Cruel but hilarious, that's what I was aiming for, yeah. I was going to name this chapter Ron's Revenge, actually, but thought of something else.  
weasleychick15 - Thank you, here's some more!  
TheSilverLady - Wow. You're good.  
  
ENJOY!  
  
*****_  
  
Alternate Identity: A Polyjuice Potion Story_  
Chapter Six: Making Up, Two Ways  
  
When the Gryffindor boys' dorm woke up the next morning, most of them were curious as to what Ron had planned to annoy Hermione with, especially Harry. They all took their Polyjuice potions and changed into their robes. Ron did not speak a word of what he was planning to get Hermione back with before or after he used the potion, but after he used the potion he grabbed something from under his bed, then got into the bathroom earlier than usual, before anyone else had to.  
  
"What're you doing?" Ginny's voice called through the door after a few minutes.  
  
"Treating Hermione's body--" Hermione's voice began.  
  
"Like most girls treat themselves, yes, I _know _that bit, but what are you doing?" Ginny's voice interrupted impatiently.  
  
"You'll see. I'll be out in a minute."  
  
Harry in Ginny's body and everyone else in everyone else's bodies got themselves prepared to get down to the Great Hall, but still Ron remained in the bathroom.  
  
"We've got to get in there too, Ron," Dean's irritated voice called.  
  
"I'm just about out!"  
  
A few minutes later, Harry checked his watch on Ginny's wrist. Ron was going to make them all late if he didn't let them in soon. He stood up, and knocked one of Ginny's fists against the door loudly several times. "Ron, we need to get in there!"  
  
"All right, all right, I'm coming out."  
  
There was a great sigh from the others.  
  
The doorknob turned and the door opened, and Harry couldn't hold back a laugh.  
  
Harry didn't know how, but Ron had managed to get a hold of some Muggle makeup, which he very inexperiencedly managed to apply liberally to Hermione's face. Her lips were gloppy and reddish-pink, which led Harry to believe Ron used more than one color of whatever it was that he used on her lips. Her cheeks looked rather sunburned. Her eyelids were a variety of colors and her eyes themselves were bloodshot, which meant they probably stood a few pokes each by accident from Ron's clumsy handling. Ron made Hermione's face look fairly disastrous.  
  
The other boys came and had a look, and they laughed as well, Ron making Hermione's face crack a grin at the reaction he got.  
  
A whistle came from Seamus. "Looking good, Hermione," he said in mock amazement.  
  
The boys crammed themselves into the bathroom to brush their teeth and wash except for Harry.  
  
"Where did you get all that?" Harry asked curiously, Ginny's eyebrows lowering.  
  
"Snuck into the girls' dorms yesterday," Ron said, holding up two handfuls of little Muggle makeup things. "Took all the Muggle stuff I saw. Didn't want to risk charming myself. Er, herself."  
  
"Hermione's going to kill you. So are the other girls who couldn't primp themselves this morning since you stole their makeup," Harry said in Ginny's voice.  
  
Ron shrugged.  
  
"And Hermione's going to write your mum," Harry said.  
  
"Why? She told me to treat her like most girls treat themselves, all that, and this is what most girls do! Just because I don't have as much experience doesn't mean I didn't do what most girls do, right?"  
  
"Er, right.. But why are you doing this?"  
  
"She blackmailed me!" Hermione's voice exclaimed. "I can't let her blackmail me!"  
  
"It's your choice," Ginny's voice said, her head shaking. Harry thought this was definitely a stupid idea. "But again, just for the record, I was against this."  
  
"Right, right."  
  
Ron in Hermione's made-over self waited for Harry in Ginny's normal self to get his chance in the bathroom before they headed down to breakfast together, a few minutes late.  
  
"I think I'll-- er-- I think I'll go ahead," Ginny told Ron in Hermione's body quickly. Being caught walking in with Ron in Hermione's embarrassingly made-over face might get slightly, well, embarassing, and wouldn't help the real Hermione to think he hadn't been in on it the whole time.  
  
Ron controlled Hermione to smile. "Right."  
  
Ginny's body hurried to Harry's normal seat at the table while Hermione's body took its time strutting over, people whispering and giggling as Hermione's body walked past. Ginny's body took a seat diagonally from Hermione in the body of Ron, who was staring, outraged, when she caught a glimpse of what students were watching cross the Great Hall. Harry's body, next to Ron's and across from Ginny's, glared at Hermione's face as well, and his and Ron's faces glaring combined with the glares of Parvati, Lavender, and anyone else in Hermione's dorm who was upset at not being able to put on makeup that morning, well, that earned Ron a lot of glares. He ignored them defiantly as he sat down bravely across from Hermione.  
  
"What do you mean by this?" Ron's voice asked in a way that showed a lot of rage being held in.  
  
"You told me to--" Hermione's voice began before Ginny's voice joined in with a bored monotone.  
  
"Treat your body the way most girls treat themselves," Ron and Harry as Hermione and Ginny explained through Hermione's voice, getting sick of saying that over and over.  
  
"Most girls," Ron's voice said, shaking in anger, "don't make a _monster_ out of themselves." Ron's head turned quickly to Ginny's body. "Did you know about this?" Ron's voice snapped.  
  
"N-- Well, _yes_, as of a few minutes ago I did, but I told him not to do it," Ginny's voice said quickly.  
  
"Harry's telling the truth," Hermione's voice said, putting some toast and bacon on her plate as food appeared on the table.  
  
"Why did you embarrass me like this?" Ron's voice hissed.  
  
"Relax, Hermione. People know it's me, the nametag says so," Hermione's voice came coolly, gesturing toward the nametag on Hermione's robes that read Ron's name.  
  
The body of Ron let out a sigh in frustration. "Then why did you do it at all? I didn't mean to ask you to do this, I just wanted you to re--"  
  
"Respect your body, yeah, but you've got to admit, you blackmailed me. And you can't write to my mum because I did do what most girls do to themselves, I'm just a bit, er.." In his deep thinking, he took a bite of toast, then frowned at the marks of lipstick left behind around his bite on the piece of toast.  
  
"Inexperienced," Ginny's voice suggested, elbowing Ron and reminding him he was still stuck in mid-sentence.  
  
"Inexperienced, yeah," Hermione's voice said, looking up abruptly, swallowing and nodding.  
  
"Clumsy, more like," Harry's voice huffed, Ginny inside being silent up until now.  
  
"Well, could you please wash it off so we can just forget about this?" Ron's voice asked.  
  
"Well could you please trust me being in your body for a month?" Hermione's voice shot back.  
  
Ron's voice silenced. "I do trust you," it came out quietly.  
  
"You sure don't act like it!" Hermione's voice replied. "You don't have to threaten me that you'll write to my mum at the drop of a hat--"  
  
"I just don't want you to do anything stupid!" Ron's voice said irritably.  
  
"I didn't!"  
  
"Shaving?" Ron's dry voice reminded him.  
  
"Well, there was that," Hermione's voice said thoughtfully. "But that was all! Can't you just trust me?"  
  
Ron's lips pursed. "Fine, then. Now for heaven's sake, Ron, get that stuff off your face."  
  
"Mm.. Maybe later." Hermione took a drink of pumpkin juice.  
  
Ron's face looked thoroughly annoyed. "How am I supposed to trust you if you're willing to make me look ridiculous?"  
  
"It's not too bad," Hermione's voice said hastily, wiping her mouth after her gulp of juice, smudging the lipstick even more. "I happen to think I made you look very attractive," he joked, yet he was oblivious to the fact he smeared the lipstick to cover a portion of Hermione's face. Harry and Ginny didn't laugh at the irony, not wanting to trigger more of Hermione's anger.  
  
Ron's voice was silent for a moment, Hermione inside thinking. Ron's face then lightened up. "I meant to talk to you earlier. D'you think we could step out?"  
  
"Sure," Hermione's voice said unsurely.  
  
The pair stepped out of the Great Hall.  
  
"So.. What did you want to say?" Ron asked through Hermione's voice.  
  
"Er," Ron's voice said. Hermione really hadn't thought of a reason to get him out here, she just wanted to clean that nasty makeup off.  
  
"It wouldn't have anything to do with Rita Skeeter's interview.. Would it?" Hermione's voice guessed knowingly.  
  
There was a pause, then a slight smile played on Ron's lips for a moment, and his eyes flicked upward toward the ceiling. _Thank you, Ron,_ she thought. "Perhaps," Ron's voice said matter-of-factly.  
  
"Oh really," Hermione's voice said, smiling slightly. "Well, do tell, Hermione," it continued amusedly, Ron's ego inflating at an alarming rate, remembering the bit of the interview when Hermione mentioned him.  
  
Ron's hand slipped into his pocket and his eyes settled back on Hermione's. His voice dropped, and had a strange tone to it. "I've got something to say to you.. But promise you won't tell."  
  
"I promise," Hermione's voice said, Ron's ego skyrocketing even higher yet. It was scary watching his own body move closer and closer..  
  
Hermione controlled Ron's body to bend over slightly._  
  
Okay.. This is weird.. What is she doing?_ Ron thought, staying stationary.  
  
Ron's voice whispered into Hermione's ear. "Scourgify."  
  
"What?" Hermione's voice, perplexed, asked.  
  
"Scourgify!" Ron's voice cried, drawing out of his pocket his wand.  
  
In an instant, Hermione's face filled up with bubbles. Ron's mind inside was shocked and surprised, and her body was rooted to the spot as Hermione's mind inside Ron's body quickly muttered a series of spells that made water flow from his wand, taking out a handkerchief from one of his pockets and aggressively scrubbing Hermione's face clean. Scrubbing hard, she felt, was a way to rid her of some of her anger towards Ron. After another fast spell to dry off everything, she was finished.  
  
Quickly wringing out her handkerchief, pointing her wand at the floor to dry it off, and patting Hermione's shoulder as a thanks for cooperation, Ron's voice said, "Let's let bygones be bygones." Hermione then gestured one of Ron's lanky arms towards the Great Hall entrance. "Shall we?"  
  
Everything came along all right during the day. There was no real point in Ron being angry at Hermione for Scourgify-ing him, because it was all over in a few seconds. Hermione could tell Ron was embarrassed about it, though-- but Ron was not necessarily embarrassed about the part where Hermione Scourgified him, but in the moments before that.  
  
Besides, in Charms class, he was now really quite the, well, charmer. Hermione's wand hand had gotten used to performing a flawless swish-and-flick technique, which Ron couldn't really thank Hermione enough for, as he had never really perfected his Charms work.  
  
"Why did Mum yell at me for being in Hermione's body? She didn't yell at Ginny for being in Harry's body," Hermione's voice asked angrily that night in the Common Room over Potions homework.  
  
"That's because Mum trusts me," Harry's voice replied simply, scrawling Ginny's name at the top of her finished Charms homework. "And because she knows you."  
  
"Oh, shut up, Gin," Hermione's voice said angrily.  
  
"Well, I'm off to bed," Ron's voice said. He shut all of his books and yawned. "'Night."  
  
"'Night," everyone halfheartedly replied. Soon after Ron left, everyone else was finished with homework and very tired, dragging their books off to their dorms.  
  
Hermione's body stepped into the bathroom in the dorm, very worn out, still contemplating the fiasco involving the makeup. Parvati, Lavender, and most of the other girls that were in the dorm he stole the makeup from still hadn't forgiven him. He found his toothbrush, applied toothpaste, and began scrubbing her teeth with it.  
  
That stupid interview.. How could he think Hermione was going to talk to him about that right after he refused to wash off the makeup right away? He watched himself as Hermione grow angry at himself and embarrassed in the mirror before him. He remembered Rita Skeeter's article too clearly.. About that stupid Yule Ball.. An event that happened over a year ago!_  
  
"I'd actually be pretty flattered if he asked."_  
  
That's what Hermione had said about Ron and the Yule Ball. Why did I have to bring it up to her that day? What had I expected her to say? What did I want her to say? He restrained himself from banging Hermione's head on the wall. It doesn't matter! She was only kidding, she knows that.. I was just being a jerk.. Hermione wins, again.._  
  
"Just because it's taken you three years to notice, Ron, doesn't mean nobody else hasn't realized I'm a girl!"_  
  
Ron washed the head of the toothbrush, rinsed her mouth out and spat. He raised his head and met her eyes in the mirror. Yes. She was most definitely a girl. But he hadn't meant to insult her when he was trying to find a date to the Yule Ball.  
  
At least, now that he had been through her "special monthly event", she could never, ever accuse him of not knowing she's a girl ever again. _Ever._  
  
A sharp knock came to the door and Ginny's voice crept in through the cracks in the door. "Ron, you're taking too long in the bathroom again and it's worrying me," Harry said through Ginny's voice jokingly.  
  
"I'll be right out." He caught a glance at Hermione's reflection again before leaving.  
  
In the girls' dorm, Hermione in Ron's body had sat around organizing her things as she was first to arrive. When other girls began to arrive, she hurried into the bathroom to get her turn first.  
  
She washed Ron's freckled face and dried it with a nearby towel. She hadn't understood Ron's odd behavior in the morning-- and not just the part about the makeup. She was glad Ron brought up Rita Skeeter's article only because it dropped his guard and allowed her to Scourgify him. But she hadn't found out _why_ he had brought it up.  
  
She remembered clearly what had come pouring out of her mouth during the interview, thanks to the Veritaserum. She couldn't say it wasn't true. She was still kicking herself for falling into that awful woman's trap. But why had Ron mentioned it?  
  
Well, if he mentioned it, he must have remembered it, and might have wanted.. Details? No, that wasn't the right word.. He might have wanted... Clarification. Yes.  
  
He was probably confused at why I'd want to go with him after she got angry when he pointed out she was a girl. Why would she want to go with someone who just noticed her? But it was true, she did want to go with Ron, if he asked her first.  
  
Veritaserum just doesn't lie.  
  
She found her toothbrush and proceeded to brush Ron's teeth, still deep in thought.  
  
It was all too confusing. Did he like it when she had admitted she would go with him? If he didn't, why would he have said anything about it?  
  
So they both wanted to go with eachother.. Yet they didn't.  
  
Her head was beginning to spin. So many changes.. She figured she'd better sleep on it, a strange decision for someone like Hermione to make.  
  
She rinsed out Ron's mouth and took in another glimpse of Ron in the mirror before going to bed.  
  
*****  
A/N: I like this chapter, sort of. Writing it was fun. Review please! They're what is keeping me writing. 


	7. To Be Interviewed or Not To Be Interview...

A/N: More reviews for moi, thank you! You are propelling me forward like I'm on a rolling chair with a big fire extinguisher poised for blastoff. Ahem.  
  
TheSilverLady- Thank you.  
Elderberry- ::innocently:: I dunno.. What do you think will happen?  
  
Enjoy chapter seven!  
  
*****_  
Alternate Identity: A Polyjuice Potion Story_  
Chapter Seven: To Be Interviewed or Not To Be Interviewed  
  
At afternoon break the following day, the four rested in the common room over some homework. Neither Ron nor Hermione mentioned anything about Rita Skeeter, her article, or why Ron brought it up. Hermione thought it was of too little significance to be so worried over; Ron just didn't think he could feel any stupider about it.  
  
An owl appeared at the window of the Gryffindor Common Room. Ginny's body jumped up and opened the window, letting the owl in and taking the parchment envelope from its beak.  
  
"Who's that from?" Hermione's voice asked.  
  
"Dunno," Ginny's voice said, frowning. She slipped the owl a knut for the pouch tied to its leg and it flew off.  
  
She turned over the envelope in her hands and opened it. A page of parchment with loopy writing on it was inside. Ginny quickly scanned over it and groaned.  
  
"What?" Ron's voice asked, watching Ginny read. "Who's it from?"  
  
"It's Rita Skeeter-- _apologizing_," she said, exaggerating finger quotation marks with her free hand. Harry walked over and sat down on an armchair in her body, reading it. The bodies of Ron, Harry, and Hermione came around to look on  
  
Dear Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione,  
  
I cannot apologize enough for what happened with the misunderstanding of our interview, but I can't take responsibility for it. I only used the Veritaserum because I was afraid you wouldn't want to talk much due to our past encounters.  
  
I would appreciate it if we could do a Veritaserum-free interview; one all about how strange you each feel trapped in eachother's bodies, and what the confessions of the last interview mean to the girls inside the boys' bodies. If you're going to Hogsmeade anytime soon, it would be just lovely if we could meet there. I would much appreciate it if you'd give it a go, and we would both benefit from it; the wizarding world would know that Harry Potter and his best friend are, well, just best friends, and I would get a fine article to print in the Daily Prophet, if they'll allow me to. They're not happy with me at the moment, but a good enough article will surely change their minds. It all depends on you.  
  
Sincerely,_  
  
Rita Skeeter_  
  
"That hag!" Ron's voice snarled, Hermione controlling it. "How dare she ask for another interview after that last one!"  
  
"I don't know," Ginny's voice said thoughtfully. "Hermione, you and Ginny got a shot at the interview the last time, why not let me and Ron and me do it? It'd be nice to let the wizarding world know the truth, for Ron's sake, and mine."  
  
"Yeah," Hermione's voice said, Ron inside it thinking. "Good idea, Harry."_  
  
"Don't take anything she gives you!"_ Harry's voice said shrilly.  
  
Ron in Hermione's body looked, bewildered over at Harry's body, surprised at the sudden outburst. So, Ginny was going crazy about the first interview, too. "Er.. Okay, Gin."  
  
"You don't mind, do you, Hermione?" Ginny's voice asked, already grabbing a spare piece of parchment to write back to Skeeter with.  
  
"Oh.. No," Ron's voice said in the same way she did when asked if she minded someone copying her homework.  
  
"What's the matter?" Hermione's voice asked. "Harry and I have a very.. very _interesting_ image in the world now due to your interview! Can't we fix that?"  
  
"I know, I know, but you'd also be helping Rita Skeeter's career," Ron's voice pointed out.  
  
"Hermione, we're not going to be doing the interview, so it'll be less interesting, " Harry's voice pointed out, Ginny controlling it.  
  
"True," Ron's voice said thoughtfully. "But be _careful_, then, you two."  
  
"Right," Hermione's voice said, sitting next to Harry as he wrote the letter. "This Saturday's a Hogsmeade day, isn't it?"  
  
"Yeah," Harry's voice replied.  
  
Ginny's hand scrawled down _March 18th_ on the parchment and a fairly short message. Hermione's hand scripted Ron's name at the bottom and Ginny's hand produced Harry's name.  
  
"I'll send it with Hedwig.. We need her to get the reply quickly if we're going to Hogsmeade in two days." Ginny's body left the common room and set off for the Owlery.  
  
Harry's head turned hatefully at the pile of homework on the table. He sighed, scooping it up. "I'm going to do this later," Harry's voice said, Ginny controlling it. He took it up to the girls' dorm.  
  
Hermione's body still stood over the armchair where Rita Skeeter's letter was read by Harry. Ron's body sat at a table where the reply was written. Ron's eyes met Hermione's, but then they both turned away.  
  
"Look," Ron's voice said, "I was wondering about what happened yesterday when you mentioned Rita Skeeter's interview,"  
  
"Oh," Hermione's voice replied. "I-I don't know why I said that, really, I was sort of wondering about what you'd said in it since it came out."  
  
"Oh," Ron's voice said. Hermione became frustrated and embarassed, not knowing what to say. "Well, I was being controlled by Veritserum. I couldn't control what I was saying!"  
  
"All it does is make you tell the truth," Hermione's voice argued. "It's not the potion's fault that that's what you really thought," her voice continued, Ron inside getting more embarassed at what he was saying as the argument progressed. Hermione's ears turned red.  
  
"Well, I'm sorry if it's been upsetting you! If I could have prevented myself from babbling, I would have. And all I said, I remind you, was that I'd say yes to you if you had asked me to the Yule Ball! It wasn't a big deal!" Ron's voice said, flustered. By now, several other Gryffindors had sighed, recognizing another Ron-Hermione row.  
  
"It didn't upset me! It confused me!" Hermione's voice exclaimed.  
  
Harry came down the stairs to see Ron and Hermione staring daggers at eachother and a few other Gryffindors glancing over at them. "Did I miss something?" Harry's voice, Ginny controlling it, asked, looking around at them.  
  
"No," Ron's voice said, breaking the glare.  
  
"Okay," Harry's voice said carefully, not wanting to rekindle any fire that was undoubtfully blazing in the mere minutes she was absent from the room.  
  
Throughout the afternoon classes, Ron and Hermione didn't really speak to one another. Ginny found time to explain to Harry as much as she knew about their latest row.  
  
"It's true, what he said," Ginny said in her own body in the dorm. She sat on her bed in her old nightgown, her legs folded. Hermione had just explained what had happened.  
  
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, whose potion also wore off.  
  
"Ron's just confused. He didn't think you would've said yes if he asked you to the ball. I'm sure he wanted you to, you know."  
  
"Oh, please," Hermione said, waving a hand. "Ron? He didn't recognize me as a _female_ until fourth year."  
  
"Give him a break. It took him five years to notice I'm not the seventh Weasley son," Ginny said jokingly.  
  
Hermione cracked a small smile. "Good one, Gin."  
  
"But really, Hermione. It's true, he does like you quite a bit. Remember when those articles by Rita Skeeter were going around about you and Harry, and my mum got mad at you?"  
  
"Yeah," Hermione said, shifting a little.  
  
"Well, put it together, Hermione," Ginny said. "She wanted you to notice Ron, not Harry."  
  
"I know that.."  
  
"And you couldn't have ignored how jealous he was when you went to the ball with Viktor.."  
  
"True," Hermione said, absentmindedly picking at a fingernail.  
  
"Do you still write Viktor?" Ginny wondered aloud.  
  
"When I find time," Hermione said, looking up. "He finds it as awkward as I do that I'm trapped in Ron's body, so he seems a bit different in his letters.."  
  
"Really," Ginny said, half-interested. "Well, anyway, Hermione.. Think about it." She stretched. "I'm exhausted. 'Night."  
  
"Good night," Hermione replied, crawling into bed.  
  
Ron woke up the next day in his own body. He looked around. The dorm was silent, except for Seamus doing some homework on his lap in a rush.  
  
Ron was clad in too-small hand-me-down pajamas and stood up to his full height, enjoying a taste of being himself. He reached for his flask at his nighttable, took a few gulps, and experienced the spine-tingling feeling he'd been experiencing hourly for the past two-or-so weeks. Though he'd been taking it so often, it still felt so odd. He shut his eyes, felt his skin bubble, felt himself shrink, felt the hems of his pajama pants reach Hermione's feet, felt bushy hair bloom from his head, and felt various other things take place as his body warped.  
  
He opened his eyes, and he was Hermione.  
  
"'Morning," said a groggy voice a few beds away. Harry had just woken up. "You're up early," he noticed.  
  
"Yeah," Ron said through Hermione's voice uncertainly. Ron just remembered that he was fighting with Hermione.  
  
Harry didn't bother to put on his glasses before he took some of his potion. Ron watched as his best friend shrunk slightly, his hair growing straight and red, his nose narrowing, his skin paling, and freckles popping up, dotting the face to finish off the process.  
  
"Still feels weird," Ginny's voice said uncertainly, picking up Harry's glasses to give to Ginny in Harry's body in the common room.  
  
Hermione's head bobbed up and down.  
  
"Are you and Hermione on speaking terms?" Ginny's voice asked timidly.  
  
"Dunno," Hermione's voice sighed, taking a set of Hermione's robes. "Guess it's going to depend on our interview with Skeeter tomorrow."  
  
"I hope she got our message," Ginny's voice said, Harry wondering if Hedwig got it to her as quickly as he'd hoped.  
  
Hermione's shoulders shrugged, and headed into the bathroom to change.  
  
As usual, he kept his eyes shut while changing. He wondered what he could do to make things better. Knowing Hermione, she probably just got frustrated about being confronted about that.. Surely she couldn't be embarassed about the interview..  
  
He finished changing and made an attempt and taming Hermione's wild mane, as he did each morning. He dragged a brush through her hair, half-interested, mumbling a series of "Ow"s. After a quick cleaning of the teeth, he got out of the bathroom and Ginny's body walked in. Ron decided to go down to the Common Room. He grabbed his books and left early.  
  
Harry took Ginny's body into the bathroom and brushed her teeth, still half-asleep. He changed, closing her eyes. After sucessfully getting all the right clothes on all the right areas, he opened her eyes. He saw a brush on the counter with curly brown hairs on it that were unmistakably Hermione's. Harry reached Ginny's hand out and held the brush, picking all the strands of hair off of it and dragged it fairly easily through Ginny's red hair. He saw a rubber band on the counter and put it on her wrist. He'd been trying to master the ponytail for about a few days now, but all he got when he pulled her hair back and put the rubber band in it were bumps the hair would form on top of her head.  
  
He continued brushing back and then pulled it together in the back, smoothing the hair on top of her head. He put the brush down slowly and put both hands around the base of Ginny's hair. With one hand, Harry took the rubber band, stretched it, twisted it, and pulled her hair through, repeating the process until her hair was tightly confined to the rubber band wrapped around it. He proudly looked at the sucessful attempt at a ponytail in the mirror without a bump on the top in sight. Harry cleaned her teeth and washed her face quickly, then left the bathroom.  
  
In the girls' dorm, things were going normally. Hermione didn't feel much like speaking about Ron, so she quietly got prepared for classes. Ginny got up at her normal time, changed into Harry, and got into the bathroom after one of the other girls but before Hermione in Ron's body.  
  
"Coming downstairs?" Ginny asked in Harry's voice after she saw Hermione in Ron's body was ready to go.  
  
"Sure," Ron's voice said, picking up Hermione's bag and heading out of the dorm.  
  
Harry's face broke into a smile when his body stepped downstairs. "You finally managed a ponytail," Harry's voice said, examining the hair of Ginny.  
  
Ginny smiled. "I know!"  
  
They continued talking. Ron in Hermione's body approached Hermione in Ron's body. "'Morning," Hermione's voice said unsteadily.  
  
"'Morning," Ron's voice replied, his eyes elsewhere.  
  
"It's still all right if I do the interview tomorrow.. isn't it?" Hermione's voice asked.  
  
"Of course it is. It's not my decision to make. Just watch out," Ron's voice replied quickly.  
  
"Er.. okay. Just checking," Hermione's voice explained. Ron hated it when Hermione was mad at him like this.  
  
All throughout the day, Hermione and Ron were hesitant about talking to eachother. At night, Ron quietly thought to himself that he'd have to be good on the interview.. Hermione would surely read it if it gets published. Maybe she wouldn't be so angry if Ron did a good job at the interview, saying and doing nothing to embarass her..  
  
He fell asleep thinking about Hermione and the interview.  
  
*****  
A/N: I am very very open to suggestions! Please tell me what you'd want to see, I need some ideas. 


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